


Make me, Malfoy

by Cohmcarden



Category: Draco - Fandom, Draco Malfoy - Fandom, Harry Potter - Fandom, Malfoy - Fandom, hogwarts - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Draco Malfoy being a lil bitch, Draco Malfoy smut, Enemies, Enemies to Friends, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Harry Potter - Freeform, Hogwarts, Smut, draco malfoy fluff, draco malfoy x reader - Freeform, romance???, slow burn???, ur a wizerd arry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-27
Updated: 2020-12-19
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:55:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 37,965
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26145247
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cohmcarden/pseuds/Cohmcarden
Summary: Draco Malfoy x reader where the reader is actually a Slytherin and isn't a lil bitch :) x+ megggaaaaa enemies to lovers, and when I say slow burn, I mean s l o w      B u r n     X
Relationships: /reader - Relationship, Draco Malfoy - Relationship, Draco Malfoy x Reader, Draco Malfoy/Reader, X Reader - Relationship
Comments: 78
Kudos: 486





	1. Chapter 1

You felt the beat of your heart in your throat as you followed the crowd of chatting students onto the train, filing into compartments in their various groups and practically vibrating with excitement on their way to ‘Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’.

You had yet to find a clique to join, and so you found yourself walking down the train corridor by yourself, hanging onto the strap of your bag as you peered into the passing compartments, looking for an empty one. After about three minutes of walking you finally came across an empty room. Stepping inside, you dumped your bag in the seat opposite you, sitting on the scratchy seat and putting your feet up on the opposite seat, set on warding off any annoying groups of people that would try to sit with you.

The station began to move past the window as the train began to move, the low, grumbling sounds of the train tracks clattered underneath the floorboards as you leaned your head against the window and prepared yourself for the long and boring journey ahead. If only you'd remembered to bring a fucking book.

You were letting your mind wander, thinking about what this new school had to offer you, when you heard the door to your compartment aggressively slide open. Swinging your head round you saw a short, plump boy standing in the doorway, in front of a taller, much meaner looking, boy. He froze, looking puzzled as he studied the girl sat in front of him.

“Move.” He said, shaking his head as he looked at you.

“No.” You replied, crossing your arms and getting ready to take out your earrings if this turd of a human didn't leave.

He looked round at the mean-looking boy, who shot back an ‘I dunno’ look. He turned back to you, meeting your eye before continuing down the empty corridor, his large companion trailing behind. As they left, a third boy followed behind them, glancing into your compartment as he marched by. You didn't see much of him, but one thing that stood out to you was his bleach blond hair that shimmered like mother of pearl under the shitty yellow bulbs that lit up the trains corridors, bouncing slightly with every stride as his silver eyes met yours.

You stood up, exasperatedly sighing as you slid the door closed, turning back to the window as you waited for the excruciatingly boring train ride to be over—there was only so much to think about before you went back to staring at the bushes and trees that stood beside the train tracks. You lost yourself in the scenery as you leant on the window, anxious to arrive at your destination as you thought about what people would think, how they would react to you, your background-

The piercing train whistle yanked you out of your head as the whole carriage came to a jarring stop, flinging your bag off the seat. You picked it up off the grubby floor, slinging it over your shoulder as the sound of opening doors and the uproar of excited crowds flooded the corridors.

You followed the crowd off the train and finally onto school grounds, surrounded by the lighthearted buzz of excitement as the groups of friends clung together, leaving you outside of their little cliques.

When everyone was off of the train you were all lead through a myriad of winding paths, guided by professors dressed in pointed hats and flowing cloaks as the jittering crowd gasped in awe of the stupendous grandeur of the castle that stood above the wandering woods that encompassed the grounds. You had to admit, it was magnificent—even more than the pictures.

You were lead through the towering oak doors that stood guard at the front of the building, swung open by the two professors on each side as they swiped their wands through the air. The crisp thud of hundreds of shoes on the stone floors bounced off the walls as they were lit up by the blazing torches that were hung along the walls.

You continued down the hallways and up a staircase, where you halted before a large pair of doors, much smaller than the front doors but just as fancy.

A woman made her way in front of the congregation, clapping her hands to get the attention of the crowd.

“Welcome to Hogwarts. I am Professor McGonagall.” She said, surveying her audience. “The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.”

‘Sounds simple.’ You thought, having no doubt about what house you'd be in, especially considering your mothers… political alliance.

She rambled on for a bit, talking about the for houses—Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff—and about how they were all great or something; you weren't completely listening, being more focused on the crowd around you as you studied your soon-to-be classmates.

You noticed a scrawny looking boy stood just in front of you, his bright red hair just covering the smudge on his nose. Next to him was a neat looking girl, her frizzy hair bouncing in her shoulders as she listened eagerly to Professor McGonagalls speech. Stood next to her was another boy, with raven hair and round glasses the sat daintily on the bridge of his nose; you didn't have to see a scar to recognise him as Harry Potter—“The Boy Who Survived!” You remember the papers saying. You weren't particularly fussed with the arrival of this ‘Celebrity’, what with growing up being surrounded by people who wouldn't shut the fuck up about him.

“Harry Potter!” This and “Harry Potter!” That; sometimes it felt like the people around you loved him more than you.

You turned your attention away from him, looking to your left to see the trio that greeted you on the train. The silver haired boy stood in front of the other two, a scowl painted across his face as he listened to the Professor speak.

She continued.“The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting.”

She walked away for a minute, leaving the masses to gossip about this ‘Sorting Ceremony’. You weren't sure what she’d meant by that—hopefully it wasn't a test, you were shit at tests.

After a while of anxious muttering McGonagall returned, leading everyone through the doors and what you'd heard people call ‘The Great Hall’. Well, it was great.

The room was massive, with a large shimmering candelabra hanging from that ceiling that illuminated the whole room, showing four insanely long tables all half full with students that stared at you as you filed in. You were stopped in front of the raised platform at the front of the hall as McGonagall unrolled a comically long scroll, shifting her small glasses up the bridge of her nose as she read out the first name.

“Hannah Abbott!”A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause --"HUFFLEPUFF!" shouted the hat. The table on the right roared to life as the students cheered, beckoning the small girl to their table. She sat down, the people around her welcoming her as they all reached out to shake her hand, one by one introducing themselves.

McGonagall moved on. She called various names as the various tables roared to life, welcoming their new friends. The three that stood confront of you on the staircase all got put in Gryffindor, how convenient. They sat down together, being welcomed somewhat overzealously by a pair of tall, ginger lads who you swore had the same face.

The boys that you saw on the train—the short one and the mean one—both got Slytherin, sitting down with a group of students that looked like they knew them.

“Draco Malfoy!” The silver haired boy walked up and sat down, his scowl still not budging. You recognised the name ‘Malfoy’; from his age and appearance you guessed that he was probably Lucius and Narcissas son, who were friends of your mother. You'd only seen them in person once and from what you'd gathered, they seemed mean.

Now you knew why the boy was always scowling.

McGonagall held the hat over him and before it even touched one hair on his head it called out “SLYTHERIN!”

He joined the other pair on the table, greeting a few other students as friends.

You were taken slightly by surprise when you name was called. Just your first name, thank whatever god was looking over you at that moment as you made your way to the stall on the platform. You watched as a sea of anxious eyes watched you, all rooting for you to join their team as the hat was lowered onto your head.

There was a pause and you heard the raspy voice of the hat ponder, lowering its voice as it talked to you.“Hmm, yes, I know you, even without the last name I could recognise who you are from a mile away.”

You interrupted it, clearing your throat and praying that it would hurry up and get this out of the way. Your palms were shiny with sweat as you wrung your hands together, the hundreds of students watching you suddenly seeming accusatory as you gazed back at the crowd.

“Oh yes, I forgot…” It said, “That’s a secret.”

You let out a breath; you were safe.

“Well then,” The hat raised its voice, calling out to its audience as it dramatically categorised you. “It’ll have to be…” The air hung heavy with tension as silence filled the hall. “SLYTHERIN!”

Surprise, surprise, who wouldda guessed it? The table to your left audibly celebrated, somewhat less enthusiastically than the rest of the houses, but it was still a nice welcome. You made your way to the table, taking one of the available seats next to a girl who sported a jet black bob. She turned to you, fuelling all of her effort into the tiniest smile as she extended a perfectly manicured hand.

“Pansy.”

“Excuse me?” You said, wondering if her warm welcome wasn't so warm.

“I’m Pansy, Parkinson.”

_Oh, that makes more sense._ You introduced yourself, shaking her hand and shooting her a quick smile back. She swiftly turned back to the table, her half-assed smile fading as you broke eye contact.

The ceremony continued and you drifted off, not paying much attention to the names being called. Every so often a new Slytherin would be inducted, waddling down off the podium and sitting down around you as you clapped for them, shooting them a welcoming smile.

After everyone had been sorted into their houses, the headmaster, Albus Dumbledoor, stood up to introduce himself, blurting out a few random words before waving his arms open and appearing massive piles of food onto the table in front of you. Everyone in the room gasped as the air filled with the overwhelming aromas of the banquet in front of them. As soon as Dumbledoor finished welcoming everyone an uproar of warm conversation rose and the feast started, the students all piling food onto their plates.

The people around you started talking, the new students introducing themselves to the second-years as they got themselves situated. You peered down the table as you took a bite of the roast chicken—which was legendary—surveying your new classmates when a particular blond haired boy caught your eye. Draco Malfoy. He was sat opposite his friends a few spaces down from you, a smirk plastered across his face as they joked.

You felt a bit stalker-ish staring at him, so you turned your attention back to the food in front of you, your mind completely set on finishing the meal without talking to anyone, as was the way of the loner. Well, you weren't so much a loner, you just found everyone that talked to you supremely annoying.

And luckily for you, you managed to finish eating in peace, scoffing down unholy amounts of roast chicken as you let your mind drift in the friendly buzz of talking that surrounded you. Once everyone else finished, the house prefects were assigned to lead their respective houses to their dorms, taking you and your new found classmates through the hallways and down a staircase, heading down to the dungeons. You were halted before a door, the prefect saying the words “pure-blood” clearly before it swung open and you continued down into the common room.

You all stepped inside, taking in the admittedly dreary scenery as you inspected your new home. The dark stone walls were decorated with complicated embellishments that surrounded a massive fireplace as it crackled on the far side of the room. Two crystalline windows shimmered either side of the fireplace, showing a view of the lake from underwater. The prefect concluded their tour here as a few students immediately made their way to the regal looking black leather couch that stood in the middle of the common room, chatting to their friends about the decor.

You headed to where the prefect said your room was, opening the thick wooden door to reveal a room with about five four-poster-beds, each with a large chest at their foot and a neatly folded pile of clothes sat onto. You made your way to the only bed without a bag on it, dumping your bag on top of the chest as you unfolded the cloak and held it up, studying the deep, forest green detailing around the hems, and the regal looking crest sewn into the chest pocket. You looked closely; it was a snake over a shield, very aesthetic if you did say so yourself.

You set it back down, flinging yourself dramatically over the rest of the—surprisingly comfortable—bed as you sighed, in both excitement and anxiousness. You weren't sure what your life at Hogwarts was going to turn out to be, but you were eager to find out.


	2. Chapter 2

You were woken up by the aggressively loud sound of church bells, sounding the start of the day. You tried your best to ignore it, but failed miserably, sitting up and rubbing your eyes, looking around the room to see your roommates just as dazed as you. Last night you'd found out that the girls you were sharing a room with were actually quite nice; they introduced themselves to you—Feath Mirdoc, Felicity Amarantaria and Maple Monarch. Your bed was next to the wall, next to Maples, and you watched her wake up out of the corner of your eye, catching a glimpse of her frizzy ginger hair spring forward as she snapped into consciousness.

Despite being pissed about being woken up so rudely, you were undoubtedly excited about getting changed into your official Slytherin robes. Throwing your legs over the side of the bed you jumped onto the cold stone floor, grabbing the pile of clothes that you'd thrown onto the floor and changing into them, skipping to the mirror to check your appearance.

You studied yourself; the long black robes hung off your shoulders like a silk tablecloth off a dining table, elegantly contrasting with the forrest green around the edges. You spun around, watching the cloak flare out in the breeze and twirl round your legs as you stopped.

You rustled through your bag, grabbing a hair tie and sliding it over your wrist, before returning to the mirror. Running your fingers through your frizzy, thick hair you pulled it into a messy ponytail, admiring how its jet black colour blended into your new uniform. Well, most of it, except the one streak of white that spiked out of your head like a lightning bolt.

You sighed; your hair was your least favourite thing about yourself because it always made sure that people knew just who you were. Like the scar plastered across Harry Potters forehead it was a staple of your past, and it was near impossible to escape.

Luckily for you, all the Professors at the school had come to the mutual agreement that sharing your identity with the whole student body would just lead to you being permanently extradited from any to all friendship groups, which is why, you guessed, that they only called your first name in the sorting ceremony.

Having the whole school find out that you were the daughter of Bellatrix LeStrange wasn't exactly at the top of your To Do list for the school year.

“We look so fancy.” Maple said, standing next to you in front of the mirror and twirling.

“Yeah,” You agreed, “I feel super professional.”

The other two stayed gossiping in the corner, complaining about the uniform or something as you and Maple made your way down to the common room, making sure to grab your schedules on the way out.

The common room was far more welcoming than yesterday, the roaring fire ushering a warm breeze over the floor as first-years scuttled about, excited for their first day at Hogwarts. You heard a voice coming from the other side of the room, commanding and slightly shrill. You looked over to see Draco Malfoy leant up against one of the walls, berating his fat friend about a wand or something, you couldn't really hear him.

“Hey,” You turned to Maple, hoping shed offer some insight into him. “Whats his deal?”

“Who?”

“Draco Malfoy, over there.” You tiled your head towards his direction, trying not to be obvious. “My parents know his but thats about all I know about him.”

“Oh,” Her eyes lit up as she bounced up and down on one leg. “My sisters a third year here, and apparently about a week ago she saw his father walking around, like, judging the place. Apparently he seemed scary or something, I wasn't really listening; I was wondering what classed I’d have. Speaking of,” She continued, Jesus she talked fast. “What do you have?” She peered over your shoulder, looking at the piece of paper in your hand.

You looked down, unfolding it, and studied your schedule; Herbology.

“Oh sick, c’mon, I know where that is.” She started marching out of the common room, halted by her rumbling stomach.

“Or maybe we could get breakfast and _not_ starve to death in the middle of class?”

“Right; The Great Hall it is!” She continued marching. Despite being unusually bubbly, you liked her—she was far from the kind of people you were usually around and you liked that. Plus, it was nice to have a friend and not be totally alone at the start of a new school.

You followed her to the Great hall, staring at the cobble floor as you tried your best to keep up with her. When you finally arrived you took a seat next to her, marvelling at the piles upon piles of breakfast food that decorated the table. A warm aroma circled through the air, scents of pastries and tea danced and collided with more bitter smells of coffee and fruit. It was heaven.

You sat opposite a tall girl with the same crazed, ginger hair as Maple, only tamed into a bun. She reached out her hand, shaking yours and introduced herself in a rather mellow voice.

“Hi, I’m March, Maples sister.” She was far more laid back than Maple, lacking the jittering, manic aura that lingered around your new friend at all times.

You introduced yourself, picking at the mountain of croissants that sat to the right of you before turning back to Maple, who had already put half the table worth of food on her plate.

“Leave some for the rest of us.” You joked, making her laugh and put down the seventh puff pastry that she was picking up.

She turned to her sister. “We both have Herbology together, first class!” She immediately started bombarding March with questions; ‘Whats it like?’ ‘Is it hard?’ ‘What teacher is it?’.

You ignored her, tucking into the food as you were particularly famished. After about half an hour of March being interrogated, the whole room went silent, the low chitter-chatter evaporating as Professor Dumbledor took his place behind the golden podium that stood on the platform at the front of the room.

“Welcome, everybody, to your first day at Hogwarts school for witchcraft and wizardry!” His booming voice rattled off the walls as he smiled at the crows, eliciting a small cheer from the students. “I hope that you will all do well in your studies and, soon enough, call this castle your second home!” Another cheer came from the crowd. “Now, I’d hate to cut this magnificent breakfast short but I'm afraid that if you’re all late to class I’ll have to turn this meal into a detention. Off you go.” He clapped, making all the food from the table disappear, save for hat was sill on your plates.

Maple sighed, stuffing about three puff pastries into various pockets before standing up and bidding her sister goodbye.

“C’mon, we cant be late or we’ll be cursed!” She whispered theatrically loud, before jumping over the stall and skipping back through the doorway. You said goodbye to March, jogging to catch her sister who was surprisingly fast at skipping.

As you walked down the hallway you chatted, conspiring about the students that walked past.

“What about him?” Maple pointed to a tall, thin boy, who was crouched next to a window feeding a small robin half a slice of toast.

“Hufflepuff, without a doubt.” You paused, scanning the crowd. “Her.” You pointed to a short, plump girl, who had cornered a frightened looking professor and was scolding him, so much so that you thought you saw a tear rolling down his cheek.

“Ravenclaw, one hundred percent.” Maple nodded, turning to her left and pausing. “Him…”

She pointed to a scrawny looking boy, his raven hair falling over his glasses as he talked.

“Are you kidding? Thats Harry Potter.” You said, whispering slightly as you passed him.

“Wait, really?” Maple stopped dead in the middle of the hall, only walking as you practically dragged her.

“Yup.”

“Ok… But what house?”

“Gryffindor, I heard him get sorted when we first came in.”

“Oh, definitely.” She agreed with you, before stopping at a doorway. “we’re here.”

You headed inside, joining a crowd of students standing together. As soon as you walked in the professor, a short, scruffy woman with dirt smudged on her cheeks and curly, grey hair, pointed to you.

“Here you are, you're late.”

You looked around. “We’re three minutes early.”

“Irrelevant.” She turned back to the class as you shot Maple an exasperated look. “Now them everyone, follow me.” She strode out of the small classroom, the class tailing behind her as she marched. You followed her out of a doorway to the outside of the castle and down a cobbled path that wend down a small hill to a messy looking greenhouse. As soon as the teacher opened the door, an aggressive wave of hot air hit you in the face, the pungent smell of rotting plants and bonemeal making the crowd gag.

A chorus of ‘Ew!’ and ‘Yuck!’ rose as everyone was ushered into the Mediterranean-like climate, gathering in the corner of the room.

“Don’t be so dramatic.” The professor chuckled, grabbing a trowel and waving it around as she introduced herself. “I am Professor Sprout, head of Herbology. Welcome to the greenhouse, please do not touch, lick, smell or eat anything in here or you'll either die or turn into a pig.”

‘Sounds pleasant’ You thought, getting ready for what looked like an hour and a half in a sweltering, smelly glass building, surrounded by about twenty other disgruntled students. And it was.

After class had finished you and Maple emerged from the greenhouse, hot and bothered, and covered in dirt.

“Jesus christ, how many types of leaves _are_ there?” She wiped the sweat off her forhed, dramatically sighing.

“Around a thousand, apparently.” You chuckled, checking your schedule; Astrology.

You and Maple went to your next class, sitting with a pair of boys that whispered about ‘Quiddich’ the whole time. After that you went to your next class, then the next one and so on until the school day was over, and you and your friend made your way back to the common room.

“Ugh, I’m tired!” Maple grunted, throwing herself onto the long black sofa that sat in front of the fireplace, jogging a boy who was sketching a cat.

“Yeah, me too.” You weren’t, but you also weren't sure what you were meant to do after classes.

“Okay, I’m going to bed.” She sprung up, floofing her hair and nodding.

“It’s like six.”

“Exactly.” She smiled at you, bounding towards the girls bedrooms. If she was tired she definitely didn't look it.

Great, now you were standing, alone, in the middle of the common room while your only friend was napping. What to do, what to do. It wasn't like there was a defined list of after-hours activities on-hand for situations like this, so you decided to just go with the flow.

Dropping your bag off on your bed, you headed back to the halls, mingling with the other students as they lingered about the castle within their various friend groups. You remembered where the oath to outside was, turning right and going down the path that lead to the greenhouse. You kept walking for an indeterminate amount of time, making your way through the woods, until you found yourself standing in a clearing in front of a massive lake.

The gentle sound of water moving around combined with the static of the breeze through the bushes immediately out you at ease, pushing the fact that you definitely shouldn't be here to the back of your mind as you trudged towards the waters edge. You slumped down beneath a tree, leaning your head back on the soft bark as you stared at the reflection of the clouds in the water, watching them slowly drift and merge as the wind carried them.

It was peaceful. Well, that was until you were so rudely interrupted by the crunching of footsteps behind you. You whipped your head round to be greeted with the sight of Draco Malfoy, dragging his feet across the leaf-covered ground as he approached you. You saw him look up, noticing you sat beneath the tree making awkward eye contact as you both froze.

After a while he tilted his head, talking at you accusingly. “You’re not allowed to be out here.”

Pompous bastard. “And you are?” You replied, crossing your arms.

“Well, no, but-“

“Then stop complaining.” You shot him a sarcastic smile and turned back round, ignoring him as you gazed back out at the vast lake.

He walked up to you, stopping to stand over you as he stared down. You looked up at him, shrugging.

“Draco Malfoy.” He said confidently, holding out his hand.

You stood up, slightly annoyed that he'd destroyed the peace, shaking his hand and introduced yourself.

“And do you have a last name?” He said, raising an eyebrow and scoffing.

Unwilling to make up some kind over over-complicated lie about a fake last name that wouldn't be out of place in a shitty rom-com, you settled for a simple. “No.”

Draco looked somewhat puzzled, but didn't question you any further, choosing instead to nod at you, before walking away, continuing along the edge of the water as he headed god knows where.

Well that was kind of weird. You looked back at the water, seeing the light-blue reflection had since turned to a greyish green colour as the sun went down. Deciding to head back to the common room you swiftly marched back through the woods and up the path, reaching the castle just before dark completely hit. You were surprised at your ability to remember your way around the halls, getting to the Slytherin common room quicker than you expected.

Judging on the lack of pupils in the common room you deemed it time for bed, heading to your room and seeing Maple still asleep, drooling on her pillow.

You changed into your pyjamas, getting into bed and covering your face with a pillow, trying your best to ignore the light of the lamp that the other two girls in your room wouldn't fucking turn off.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so when I said slow burn, I meant SLOW BURN-also, sorry if you don't have the hair type that I used for this story, but its kinda important to the plot so yahhh  
> xx


	3. Chapter 3

You were standing in a circle with about twenty other confused students just outside the building on a flat plane of ground. The professor who'd introduced herself as Madam Rolanda Hooch stood in the centre, waving about a neatly made broom as she went through the rules of flying.

“Feet on the ground, lean forward and kick off.” She said firmly, gesturing with every word that she said.

Unfortunately, Maple had a different class to you so you had no-one to make snarky remarks about the other students to.

“Okay,” Madam Hooch continued, “Now hold your hand over the broom and say firmly ‘UP’, ok?”

A chorus of loud “UP!”s started as the brooms scattered across the floor started rolling around. You looked round the circle, seeing Hermione Granger instantly catching her broom and standing proudly. The ginger boy next to her wasn't quite so lucky though, getting hit in the face as he missed the handle for the third time. You looked over to Draco, seeing him struggle a small bit before looking around sketchily and picking it up off the floor.

You rolled your eyes, turning to your own broomstick and saying, “Up.” The broom sprang up, hitting the palm of your hand as you smugly caught it, looking back to see the majority of the class still struggling.

When everyone was holding their broomsticks Madam Hooch repeated what she said. “Feet on the ground, lean forward and kick off.”

It was hilarious watching everyone try to do this. Multiple over-cocky students fell flat on their face the second they got in the air, others managed to hover for a second before coming back down. One boy, however, seemed to be abed to effortlessly fly around. Of course it was Draco; he'd definitely ridden a broomstick before, probably because his parents didn't want him to embarrass him, and by proxy the family name, by flapping around in the air.

Madam Hooch suddenly made an announcement. “I need to leave for a moment. No flying too high, fighting or trying to impress people, unless you want detention, understand?”

A mutter of ‘understand.’ Sounded as she strode away, muttering something about a wand to herself as she stared at the floor.

The second she left Malfoy zoomed into the sky, flying a good ten meters above everyone else, watching them fail with a smug expression on his face. Dickhead.

You decided to switch from observing, mounting the broomstick and taking in a breath, ignoring the buzzing anxiety in your chest. You exhaled, pushing off from the ground and leaning forward. You were shocked to find yourself levitating, not face first in the dirt, as you rose, chuckling as a couple of students watched you in awe.

You should've come back down, waited for the teacher to come back, but as usual your ambition blocked out all logical thought. You looked up at Draco, who was doing loops in the air with a sickeningly smug look on his face, and decided to take his ego down a notch.

You gripped the front of the broom, steadying yourself as you leaned forward, rising fast. You made eye contact with Draco as you hovered level with him, smiling smugly as you did your best to look nonchalant, not like you quite literally terrified for your life. He scowled at you, snarling as she slowly clapped his hands.

“Bravo.” His tone was low and mocking, and it made you want to push him off the broomstick.

You laughed, rolling your eyes at his fragile masculinity. “Feeling threatened?”

“Not in the slightest.” He lied, flying dangerously close by you as he went higher, presumably trying to initiate a fight to see who'd pussy out first.

You followed him, hovering about thirty meters off the ground as you matched his bet. You waved at him, earning a scoff as he looked down, to see the whole class staring up at the two of you and gossiping between them. You glanced at them, returning to looking at your rival and ignoring how fucking high you were, and pushing the pending threat of certain death to the back of your mind, unwilling to loose whatever duel was taking place.

“Scared?” Malfoy sneered, doing a role poly in the air and coming back up, balancing perfectly back as he mocked you.

You definitely couldn't do that, you'd fall and die, so you opted for something admittedly less impressive, but also much safer. You took your hands off the front of the broom, crossing your arms and leaning back.

“In your dreams.”

This time you decided to make the first move, rising about fifteen meters above where Draco was hovering, looking down on him in fake disgrace. He met your height, looking slightly worried as he kept his grip firmly on the front of his broomstick, looking down at the ground as he rose. You would've felt the same fear about falling, but you were too set on being the last man standing to be scared.

The only sound that you could hear this far up was the weak static of the wind and your own breathing, your gossiping classmates voices too far away to reach you. Despite being the one who started this whole thing, the look on Dracos face was telling you that he regretted showing off in the first place.

Suddenly, a huge gust of wind pushed you almost off your broomstick, bringing your head back down to earth as you realised just how high you were. You could see the same realisation on Dracos face as he steadied himself, looking back at you as he gulped.

Another gust of wind pushed your forward, knocking your and Dracos brooms together and almost sending you both to the ground.

“Hey! Watch it!” He snapped, growling at you as he clenched his jaw.

“You watch it!” You shouted back. “You almost knocked me off!”

“Not intentionally!”  
  
“How do I know that?!”

“If I wanted to knock you off, I could!”

You looked back at him, doing your best to resist the urge to encourage him and failing.

“Doubt it.” You muttered, immediately regretting your decision.

Draco looked at you, angrily kicking his foot out and catching the from of your broom, spinning you round but not knocking you off.

“Hey!” You flew back round, ramming his shoulder with yours.

He hit you back, both of you trying to ram the other off your broom, which was admittedly _not_ the best idea, as you ignored the fact that of either of you fell it was instant death.

You were on the verge of slipping when you heard a loud whistle behind you, turning round to see Madam Hooch with a whistle in her mouth and a furious scowl on her face hovering behind you.

“You two! Down! Now!” She shouted, dropping the whistle in her mouth.

You both obeyed, doing your best not to fall as you descended back into the middle of the circle of bemused students, all whispering about you as you planted your feet on the ground. You were relieved to be back on solid ground, but that relief was quickly swept away as Madam Hooch grabbed you by the shoulder, dragging you and Draco back into the building.

“Where are we going?” Draco said angrily, tugging his shoulder away from the teachers grip.

“Detention.” She responded.

‘Great’ You thought. Your second day and you already had detention, and with Draco Malfoy none the less.

You were lead to an empty classroom and shoved inside by Madam Hooch, telling you to ‘BEHAVE!’ while she finds someone to appropriately scold you before slamming the door. Now, you and Malfoy are left in an empty classroom by yourself, and the anger in the air fizzled like a sparkler as he marched towards you, his sliver-blond hair bouncing every time he took a step. He walked straight past you, shouldering you as he fumed, yanking out a seat and throwing himself down. You grimaced at him, pulling out your own chair and sitting down. You both sat there, brewing in dissatisfaction as you made a point of ignoring each other.

“Y’know,” Malfoy said, breaking the silence. “It’s your fault we’re in here.” He kept his gaze trained on the front of the classroom, burning a hole into the blackboard.

“You’re the one who started it.” You muttered angrily back to him, rolling your eyes.

“No, you started it.” He muttered back.

“No, you.”

“No you.”

No, yo-” you were interrupted by Professor McGonagal throwing the door open and marching onto the room, throwing a pile of books onto the desk and sitting down.

The next hour was filled with the thrill of writing out page 155 of ‘Astrology For Dummies’ out three hundred times in complete silence. Exciting.

When you and your rival were finally released from your sentence of boredom you parted ways, each heading down opposite ways of the corridor. Having just missed your lunchtime you were ready to head to your next lesson and sit through it, ignoring the fact that you'd just missed possibly the best food that you'd ever eaten, when you were turned around by Malfoy shouting back to you.

“My father will hear about this!”

You turned back to him, holding up your middle finger and smiling, before turning round and heading back to your next lesson.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this ones short but I'm lazy uwu x


	4. Chapter 4

You were once again woken up by the loud, unforgiving bells that yanked you out of sleep and slapped you round the face with a bout of consciousness. Although it wasn't exactly pleasant, you were getting used to it by now, having just started your third year at Hogwarts.

You rubbed your eyes, looking around at the same cozy room you'd been in since your first day. You looked over to Maple, who'd grown to become your very best friend, or only friend, but that didn't matter. As usual, she was still snoring under a frizzy pile of untamed hair, having slept through the bells as she did every morning. You yanked her pillow out from under her face, throwing it at her to wake her up. She rose, a dazed expression on her face as she looked over to you and smiled.

“Mornin’ dickhead!” She chirped, rolling out of bed and immediately grabbing a hairbrush.

“Ditto.” You growled; you were still bemused by her ability to completely wake up in about three seconds, when it took you about half an hour and three cups of coffee to even consider getting dressed.

You and your roommates all got dressed, filing your books into your bags before heading down to the common room, time for your daily staring contest with Draco Malfoy, your arch nemesis.

You saw him sitting confidently on the black leather sofa, taking up about three spaces as he spread his legs, Crabbe and Goyle sitting either side of him, evidently boring him with their conversation as he sipped water from an unnecessarily decadent cup. As soon as your eyes met his face was crumpled with a scowl, swiftly rising from his seat and marching over to where you were standing, next to Maple as she talked to Blaze about homework.

“Mudblood.” He greeted you, smiling a smile laced with malice and rising his glass.

Sneakily, you reached into your inner pocket and gripped your wand, mimicking his sarcastic smile as you pushed your body off the wall you were leaning on.

“Shit-for-brains.” You returned, taking out your want and swiping it through through the air, snatching the cup from Dracos hand and tipping it over his head.

You watched as he realised why just happened, water dripping off the tip of his nose as he huffed, throwing the cup to the floor as he stormed back to his room to get changed out of his, now soaking, clothes.

Maple, who had been oblivious to the whole situation as usual, grabbed your arm, pulling you across the floor as she skipped. “C’monnn, I’m hungry!”

You and her headed to breakfast, scarfing down as much bacon and eggs as was possible. Maple turned to you, putting down her bucket of coffee.

“So, what was that about, with Malfoy?” She asked.

“Oh, just same-old, same-old, y’know.”

“Right.” She nodded, twirling a finger into her mess of hair. “How did that even start? I just remember that one day you didn't even know each other, and the next he was throwing cauldrons at you in potions.” She chuckled slightly.

“Yeah, uh…” You really couldn't be bothered to explain, especially since it happened so long ago, and telling Maple the truth would make you both seem like petty little bitches. “It’s not important. Just know that he's a dickhead and we don't like him.”

“Right.” Maple agreed with you, turning back to her mountain of breakfast.

You both finished breakfast and started heading to your next lesson, potions, talking about the newest broomstick that had just been released.

“Yeah,” Maple said, over excitedly bouncing about as she talked. “Apparently it’s, like, super fast, and it looks, like, super cool, _AND_ it’s, like—”

She was interrupted by you knocking into her as Malfoy shouldered past you, as he did every time he saw you in the halls.

He spun round, running a hand through his hair as he snarled. “Watch where you're going, mudblood.”

You were about to take out your wand and cruciatus his ass, when you opted for the simpler (and more legal) option.

“No.” You smiled sarcastically, sticking out a foot and kicking at the back of Dracos knee, laughing as he crumpled to the floor.

You and Maple left him behind, giggling as you glanced back to see him act like nothing happened, shrugging off Crabbe and Goyle as he frowned at you. You and Maple sat down next to each other, watching Professor Snape sort through a box of various coloured bottles.

The sound of aggressive stomping entered the room as Malfoy walked into the class, throwing himself down into his seat and resting his head in this hands, obviously having some sort of temper tantrum. Luckily for you, he sat in front of you, which gave you a front row seat to him getting pissy every time you harassed him.

“Now everyone,” Professor Snape said, slamming down a text book and flicking through the pages. “Go to page 10.”

The rushed rustle of pages turning filled the room as everyone did as he said, keeping their books open on page ten. You looked down onto your text book, reading the title that was printed at the top of the page:

“Draught of Living Death”

Sounds cheery. As Snape started talking, going over safety precautions and whatnot, you read along the page, curious as to why the school was letting fifth years play around with a potion who's name had the word ‘Death’ in it.

_‘The Draught of Living Death brings upon its drinker a very powerful sleep that can last indefinitely. This draught is very dangerous if not used with caution.’_

Well theres no way that this Gould go horribly wrong. You looked back up to Snape as he lowered his voice, closing his textbook as he talked to the class.

“Technically, this potion is in the curriculum for sixth years only, but I believe that this class is completely capable of achieving it, given the proper guidance.” He raised his voice again. “And if anyone breathes a word of this to Albus Dumbledor the consequences shall be _dire_. Understood? Yes, well, lets begin.”

You worked in pairs, collecting the various ingredients and piling them up on the desk for Maple to double check before starting to brew. You were just taking a pot of ground up valerian root from the cauldron at the back, when you felt a familiar presence looming over you from behind. You turned around, seeing Draco hovering above you as he looked down, grimacing slightly.

“Better be careful,” He said, but you had the feeling that what he was about to say was far less than a warning. “we wouldn't want anyone accidentally taking Draught of Living Death, now would we?” He reached behind you, filling a pot with valerian root before returning to his desk.

Earlier, you were willing to go this lesson without agitating him at all but he just changed your mind. You searched the cluttered back desk, landing on a small vile of belladonna. You picked it up, slipping it into your pocket before heading back to Maple and delivering the ingredient.

“Step back.” She said, wafting you away with an absent hand.

“Why?”

“I don’t trust you.”

“Fair enough.” This was the perfect opportunity.

Draco was talking to Crabbe, watching him try to balance a wand on his nose as Snape was at the back, berating some poor girl for not adding enough water. Perfect. You took the vile out of your pocket, popping out the cork and hiding it up your sleeve as you stood next to Dracos cauldron. You checked one more time to check if he was distracted, before pouring the entire vile into his potion and quickly putting it back into your pocket.

“Hey,” Draco grabbed your arm just as you replaced the foul ingredient in your pocket, out of sight. “What are you doing?” His eyes were accusatory, and rightly so, but it was so funny to see him suspect you that you could hardly keep a straight face.

“Nothing,” You didn't sound at all convincing. “Just curious.” You said, pulling your sleeve from his grasp and going back to Maple, who was deep in thought as she re-re-re-counted every ingredient. You pretended to help her, watching Draco stare at you in confusion from the corner of your eye as you furrowed your brow at the words that you weren’t reading.

The rest of the lesson went on without any interruptions, going completely smoothly until it came to adding the final ingredient. Snape went round, dropping it into each pairs cauldrons which mostly turned out considerably disappointing results. He got to you, dropping it in and scoffing when the lilac coloured liquid stayed lilac.

It was hard to keep a straight face when he got to Dracos, wringing your hands as a way to let out your nervousness; You weren't sure what was about to happen, but it was about to be funny.

For a few seconds nothing happened, and Snape carried on pacing around the classroom, but then Dracos cauldron started fizzing, and bubbling, and a pale green smoke rose from it. Snape snapped his head round, looking angrily at Draco and marching back to him, peering slowly into the mixture. Immediately a bright green foam erupted from the cauldron, hitting Snape in the face as it globed out of the pot, covering the floor. He jumped back as a chorus of giggles filled the classroom, which were quickly killed when he looked round, angrily shushing the class as foam dripped down his long nose.

The bubbles didn't stop there, growing as it fizzed and sizzled more, and started to smell of mint and ginger, which was somewhat surprising.

“Everybody out!” Snape commanded, wiping the green off of his face and ushering the sniggering children out of the door.

When everyone was out of the room, Snape grabbed Malfoy by the back of his shirt, dragging him aside and whispering angrily to him.

“What the fuck was that?!” Maple laughed, turning to you with a slightly dazed expression on her face. “I get that this is a hard potion to brew, but how did he mess up _that_ badly.”

“I dunno,” You responded, happily keeping you little prank to yourself, lest someone overheard. “Guess some people just aren't cut out for potions.” You glanced over to Draco as Maple went over to gossip with another group of students, smiling as you made eye contact with him. You outed your bottom lip, trailing a finger down your cheek as you mocked him, watching him being scolded.

It was dinner, and you and Maple were sat at the dinner table gossiping about what had happened earlier in the day.

“Do you think it _was_ him though?” Maple said, waving about a chicken leg.

“Yeah, he’s pretty stupid.” You said, unwilling to give away your secret for the moment.

Maple agreed with you, turning back to her sister and resuming their conversation.

You were about keep on eating, when you heard the familiar stomping of new shoes enter the hall, swiftly approaching you. You looked round to see Draco march up to you and stand impatiently behind you, spitting out your name like a bitter berry.

You swivelled round, greeting him. “Malfoy.”

“I need to talk to you.” He frowned.

“Sounds like a you problem.” You winced, turning back round and hoping to avoid whatever drama he was about to dub you into.

“Don’t be such a bitch.”

“Then don't be such a dick.”

“Oh my fucking god!” Maple interjected, flinging her hands up in the air and turning to you. “Can you just go with him and spare me having to listen to your petty little squabbles? Please?”

Thanks, Maple, very helpful. You huffed, standing up as passive aggressively as you could and following Malfoy put of the giant double doors, into the empty corridor.

You were trailing behind him, wondering what he was about to bitch at you for, when he snapped round, grabbing you by the collar and slamming you against the cold stone wall.

“What the fuck?” You shouted, trying to push his shoulder away.

He returned the sentiment by slamming his fist into the wall next to your head, pressing you harder into the wall.

“Look,” He started, aggressively whispering at you. “I don't give two shits about whatever you pulled in potions-“

“Okay? So-”

“I’m not finished.” He snapped, his face jerking forward as he whisper-shouted.

“My apologies, your highness.” You sneered.

“ _But_ , I heard that you and Marcus Flint had a little chat, and that he was thinking of giving you my position on the quiddich team.”

This was true; after the last game, where you were still stationed as a keeper, Marcus—the captain for the Slytherin quiddich team—approached you. He said that he'd been how fast you were, and how your reaction time was far too good for just being a keeper, and that he was considering switching you from a keeper and giving you Dracos position, as a seeker.

“Yeah, so what?” You shrugged.

“I think that it would be in your best interest to decline his offer.” He grimaced, breathing down your neck as he tried his very best to intimidate you. It wasn't working.

“Aww, why?” You pouted, crossing your arms and doing a fake baby voice. “Are you and your wittle fwiends gonna come get me? Oh, I'm soooo scared.”

“You should be.” He was evidently less confident in his threats, and you took this to your advantage.

You swiped the back of his knee with your foot—for the second time that day— and pushed his chest away, sending him crashing to the ground. As he hit the hard floor, you put your foot on his chest, stepping down slightly so he couldn't move.

“Look, Malfoy,” You spat, crossing your arms as you stared down at the boy on the floor. “I think that it would be in your best interest to fuck off and give me your position on the team; I'm a better player than you anyway.”

“But-” He started, but you slid your foot up his chest, stepping down on this throat and cutting him off.

“Besides,” You lifted the toe of your shoe, tilting his head up as you bent down to meet his eye. “we wouldn't want daddy dearest getting mad because you got beaten up but a little girl, would we.”

You paused for a second, watching him squirm and feeling his pule through the sole of your shoe, before taking pity on the pathetic mess beneath you, and stepping off of him. He gasped for air, jumping back up to his feet and grabbing his throat. He looked at you, a look of pure fear in his eyes as he scurried away down the corridor, presumably to tell daddy about the mean lady that just hurt his feelings.

You returned to the dining room, brushing down your clothes before sitting down next to you r oblivious friend.

“What was that about?” Maple asked.

“Nothing, really. Just being a whiny little bitch; y’know, the usual.”

“Right.” She went back to her plate.

You thought about what had just happened, the image of Draco terrified face fresh in your mind. You couldn't wait to replace him as seeker, and get to see the look on his face. It was going to be glorious.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooh the tensionnnn


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW//blood-near the end, its not too bad tho x

You stood, shoulders back, head up, as you held your broomstick by your side, taking in every word that the Slytherin captain said.

“Pucey; you need to be more diligent, can’t have any more slip ups from you. Miles; move faster! You're not here to sit around and watch!” He paced up and down as he gave out his orders, the stern expression on his face unwavering. “Okay, everyone dismissed; go and practice not falling off your brooms or something.” He mad direct eye contact with Adrian Pucey as he said this, making him scuttle away with his broomstick under his arm.

You were following the rest of them when you heard Marcus calling your name, ushering you back to him. “You too, Malfoy.” You knew exactly what was about to happen, and it was about to be tremendous.

“Theres no easy way to put this.” He said, glancing between the two of you as he crossed his arms behind his back. “Taking into account both of your performances last game, I’ve made the difficult decision to switch your positions.”

Draco was about to open his mouth, threaten to ‘tell daddy dearest’ no doubt, but Marcus shushed him, holding a finger up to his lips. “No arguing.” He waltzed away.

“But she doesn't even have a good fucking broom!” Malfoy called after him, pointing to your old school-issue broomstick.

When Malfoy bought his way into being the seeker, he gave the whole team the newest, fastest model of broomstick; the Nimbus 2001, to bribe his way in. Well, that was, everyone except for you. Clearly his hate for you far outweighed his pride for the team.

Marcus simply waved his hand as he dismissed him, Draco turning furiously to face you.

“And yet I'm a better player than you. Shame that daddy dearest cant buy talent from the shops.” You walked away before he could get another word in, not keen on getting extradited from the rest of the team any more than you already were.

Draco marched up behind you, whisper shouting in your ear. “Fuck you; You cant just replace me that easily.”

You just huffed, obviously he wasn't gonna let this go.

“A match.” He called after Marcus, stopping him in his tracks. The captain turned round, looking at him quizzically as he continued hi proposal. “A match; Just me and this mudblood, and a golden snitch. We’ll see who's the better player then.” He looks down to you, smiling a smile laced with poison as his eyes filled with conviction.

“Alright.” Marcus said, clapping his hands together as Dracos face was smeared with confidence, chuckling as he held his head high. “But,” Marcus continued, “She gets a Nimbus 2001.” The sickly smug expression on Dracos face was wiped off immediately, being replace with what you could almost call; doubt?

He eventually agreed, snatching a broomstick from one of his teammates and thrusting it into your hand. It was much lighter than your shitty, school-issued broom, and face more aerodynamic. The handle had far more grip and it was easier to waft through the air—in short, it was fucking awesome. You'd never actually ridden one before, having the same clunky, slow broom through your entire stay as a keeper. Though it did mean you were used to calculating peoples moves in your head, seeing where they were going and what they could be about to do, so that you could make up for that lack of speed gifted to you.

Marcus Flint set up a game for the two of you, standing in the middle of the empty pitch as the two of you hovered just above the ground, cheered on by the rest of the team from the stands. Well, Draco was—none of them ever really like you, but you were a good player, so they stayed out of your way and you stayed out of theirs.

“First one to catch the Snitch is the winner.” Marcus shouted, before throwing it up in the air without warning and jogging off the pitch.

You and Draco exchanged a single anxious glance, before both roaring to life. You knew that the Nimbus 2001 was fast, but this was ridiculous; you almost fell off the broomstick, not expecting the push back from the air. Nonetheless you kept going, locking your eyes onto the golden shine of the snitch in front of you as you leant forward.

You and Draco both raced into the middle, approaching each other with considerable speed as you raced into the middle from opposite sides. Now, it was a game of chicken; who would slow down first trying to avoid a head-on collision. It wasn't going to be you.

You and Draco almost hit each other, inches away as you chased the snitch as it flew straight up. You felt the gush of wind as you almost crashed, the faint scent of aftershave lingering about as Draco hovered inches away.

You botch flew directly up, the snitch in sight as you inclined rapidly. You glanced over, seeing a scowl painted on Dracos face as the wind blew his hair back, his arm stretched up as he reached for the snitch. You did the same, shooting out your hand as you reached for the snitch. Unfortunately, your arms were far shorter than his, so it didn't make much difference.

By now, you were a good forty meter above there ground, when the snitch made a sharp turn, heading toward Draco. You snapped round, zooming past Draco as you almost knocked into hi, feeling the gently breeze of his cloak against your skin as you passed him. He quickly gained on you, flying next to you as he rammed into you, trying to kick you off the broom.

_Isn't this what made you enemies in the first place?_ You rammed back, digging your shoulder into his. He didn't budge, following the snitch as you both tried to knock each other off, your arms being pushed together.

Again, the snitch went up, and you followed suit, ignoring Draco and keeping your eyes on the prize. It was acting weird; the snitches usual unpredictable, frantic movements had been replaced—it was far smoother than usual. A hex, maybe? You pushed the thought to the back of your mind, focusing on the matter at hand.

The snitch stopped its incline, turning right as you followed it. You felt weird, cold. Looking down you could barely see the ground; it was blocked by a thin layer of clouds. Jesus christ you were high up, so high up that the air was thinner here, and it was harder to breathe and, therefore, harder to concentrate. You ignored the burning anxiety in your throat, turning your attention to there pursuit.

The snitch kept its corse—straight forward. It was definitely being tampered with. You looked at Draco, who was hanging onto his broom for dear life, glancing down every so often. He was terrified; it was hilarious. You realised that he wasn't going to reach out, too focused on not falling, and you took the opportunity to make a ball move.

Fuck it.

You fixed your eye on the snitch, exhaling calmly as you calculated your next move.

You let go of the from of your broomstick, throwing yourself up as you crouched on the thin wooden pole, your arms outstretched to balance you. Draco looked at you with confusion, and was met by a smile as you rolled back your shoulders, looking forward and planting a foot behind you.

You jumped.

Arms outstretched. Fingers grasping. You snatched at the air, for a second staying static before plummeting to the ground. It was at this point that you realised it would've been a good shout to have a plan. AsYou fell, you reached into your pocket, the empty tugging in your throat as you fell sending a rush of adrenaline through your body.

You were about to command your broom to fly down and catch you, when the force of the wind snapped your wand in half, leaving you with just a splinter. Fuck.

The ground was fast approaching, and you saw the terrified faces of your teammates as they leant forward in their seats. They didn't exactly like you, but seeing a human body hit the floor at fifty miles per hour probably wants on their bucket list.

Time slowed down, the sound of the freezing wind booming past your ears filled up your brain as you watch the grey-green of the pitch fill up your vision, your cloak billowing in the wind. _Its over. It’s all over._

You were about a foot away from the ground, ready to accept your fate, when you felt a harsh impact around your torso, knocking the wind out of your lungs. You were swept through the air, flying fast just above the ground, Dracos arm around your body. You were relieved that you weren't dead, but that feeling didn’t last long, the front of Dracos broom catching on the turf and sending the both of you skidding across the grass as you squeezed your eyes shut.

You opened your eyes, finding yourself laying on the floor, more or less unharmed; other than a stinging pain in your left shoulder that sprawled out through your arm. You felt an arm around you, looking round to see Draco wrapped around you, his face buried in the crook of your neck and his arms pulling you into his chest. He groaned, slowly unraveling himself and rolling away from you.

Marcus’ footsteps approached as he ran towards the pair of you, calling back to the rest of the team. “GET THE NURSE!” He kneeled down next to Draco, bombarding him with questions as he rubbed his head, helping him sit up.

You rolled over, sitting up as you clutched your shoulder, tangs of pain echoing through your neck and arm.

“Fuck.” You cursed as you tried to move your fingers, only making it hurt more.

You swivelled round to see Draco sitting few feet away from you, breathing heavily. You made eye contact, your breathing in-sync as you stared. You could see his hands shaking, matching the fear in his eyes as he heaved, trying to replenish the lost oxygen.

You couldn't keep a straight face, throwing your head back as you giggled. You took your hand off your shoulder, reaching into your pocket and bringing something out, holing out your closed hand to him. Marcus watched you as you opened your hand, the golden snitch caught between your thumb and index finger.

Marcus took the snitch, turning to the team that was now gathered around you in a circle, staring down and whispering. “Looks like we've got our new seeker.”

There was a cheer from the team as they heard the news, their opinion of you evidently boosted by the stunt you just pulled.

You bathed in the admiration, the acceptance filling you with a warm, welcoming feeling as you saw the smiles directed at you.

Suddenly, you felt a hot sensation on your left arm, looking down to see your sleeve ripped open, revealing a deep gash along your shoulder, pouring blood down your arm that dripped off your fingertips and onto the grass.

Your vision blurred and you felt heavy, the lightness in your head sending you to the ground as you watched your skin get painted a dark crimson.

Black.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> owo the tension


	6. Chapter 6

A deep, stinging pain snaked across your left shoulder, waking you up.

“Fuck…” You muttered, rubbing your eyes, and opening them to see a tall, grey stone ceiling in a rather small room. You tried to push yourself up, realising too late that there was something wrong with your arm and causing an excruciating bolt of pain through your nerves.

You yelped, falling back down onto the bed.

Immediately a nurse appeared at your bedside, hovering over you with a scarily attentive look plastered across her face.

“You’re awake.” She said.

“I noticed.” You said, slightly annoyed that she didn't offer you any help.

She grabbed a glass off the bedside table, thrusting it in your face. “Drink.” She scuttled away, tending to a chalkboard on the other end of the room.

You propped yourself up with your good arm, sitting back on the wall behind you. The liquid in the glass was clear, but far thicker than water. It smelt like sour breath and grass; delicious. You took a sip and had to use every ounce of self-control in your body to not spit it out. It tasted like gone-off vodka. Putting the rest back on the bedside table you looked around the room; there were about ten empty, white beds around the room, each with a bedside table next to it. The nurse was on the other end of the room, scribbling something about potions onto a stained blackboard as she muttered to herself, before grabbing a bandage and scuttling to the bed opposite to you, grabbing the leg of the person laying down as they protested, scoffing at the less-than-five-star treatment in the school nurses office.

“Ouch!” You heard them spit indignantly.

Malfoy.

You were about to say something when you felt another pang of pain run through your left shoulder, looking down to see your arm in a sling, hanging limply by your side. There were blood-stained bandages coiling down your upper-arm, stopping at your elbow, and you saw smudges of dirt across the rest of your arm. _Good to know the nurse values hygiene._

You looked back to Draco as the nurse wrapped a bandage around his ankle, every few seconds scolding him for not staying still. She grabbed a glass of what looked like the same stuff she gave you and thrust it in his face, frowning as she once again scurried away. He sat up, tutting at her before taking a massive sip and immediately spitting it out, disgust painted across his face.

You couldn't help but laugh out loud, pretending to be serious when he sung round, shooting you a look of offence.

“Oh yay, you're awake.” He rolled his eyes, scratching the back of his neck as he put the glass back down.

“Yeah,” You returned the sarcasm. “I noticed.”

He laughed, looking at the bandage on your shoulder. “I’d say enjoy my position on the team, but somehow i don't think you'll be playing for a while.”

“Yeah…” You looked down, not quite sure how it even got injured; you landed on soft grass, not broken bottles, so how did you get such a massive cut on your arm. “How _did_ this happen?”

“My broom snapped,” Draco said angrily. “and part of it splintered into your arm and fucked it up.”

Ouch. “Shit. I’d say sorry about the broom, but I'm not.”

“You should be.”

“You should've given me one when you dished them out to the team.”

“You don't deserve one.”

“Clearly I do; I'm a better player than you.”

“No you're not.” He snapped.

“Yes, I am.” You replied.

“No, you're no-“

“Okay dickhead,” You interrupted him, trying not to laugh. “this is how we got in this situation to begin with.”

“Oh.” He realised, laughing a little, before realising and returning back to his angst.

You both lied back on your extremely uncomfortable beds, doing your best to ignore the pain in your shoulder as you stared at the ceiling; how thrilling.

Maple came to see you a few times while you were hold up in the nurses office, being ‘treated’ (a.k.a force-fed that disgusting drink which apparently healed you faster), taking you books to read, and telling you about the recent drama. Draco was also stuck there, having suffered a broken ankle when he crashed his broom, and Crabbe and Goyle wouldn't leave him alone, evidently getting on his nerves every time they took a breath.

You were released three days later, given a precautionary warning to avoid quiddich for a week while your arm fully healed. Draco was given the same advice; whether he took it or not was up to him, you didn't care. One thing you still weren't sure about was why he saved you in the first place—if he hadn't he'd get to keep his place as seeker, and probably wouldn't suffer consequences for letting a fellow student plummet to their death, all thanks to daddy dearest. You chose to ignore the question, pushing it to the back of your mind as you focused on studying—you could make up for a lot while quiddich practice was out of the question.


	7. Chapter 7

You were sat back in the nurses office, having been practically barred from the quiddich pitch for the whole week and resigned to mope about in the library and study.

As the nurse was removing the bandaged from your arm you looked over at the window, peering out at the group of students trailing behind a professor, each holding a library of books as they struggled to carry them.

“Arm out.” The nurse commanded as she took off the sling, grabbing your wrist and jerking your arm straight out.

You resisted the urge to curse, choosing instead to smile sarcastically.

“Well, you're all fixed up. Get to class.”

You thanked her, rubbing your shoulder as you walked out of the nurses office and headed to your next class; Defence Against the Dark Arts.

You were wondering at your leisure down the hall, wasting as much time as possible before you had to go to class, when you heard the frantic clip-clop of heels behind you, and the swooshing of fabric. You turned round to see professor McGonagal running down the corridoor, shouting your name as she ran.

“Whats the matter, professor.”

“Oh,” She said in her thick Scottish accent. “You best follow me, professor Dumbledore thinks it best for him to talk to you himself.”

Immediately your heart started racing; what happened? What was about to happen? What did you do? You followed McGonagal up a flight of stairs and round numerous corners, stopping at a tall doorway carved out of a stone wall, covered by a metal object.

“Sherbot Lemon.” She said, the metal object spinning to reveal an ornate set of metal stairs, cradled by a sculpture of a phoenix with its metallic wing wrapped around the stairs.

You were ushered up the stairs, and told to wait at the top of them while professor McGonagal opened on of the two arched wooden doors and slid inside. You waited, hearing the shushed sound of whispering floating through the crack in the doors, before McGonagal walked back out, smiling at you sweetly as she made her way back down the stairs.

You turned back to the doors to see them wide open, Dumbledore stood between them with his hands clasped together, smiling as he spoke. “Come in, dear.” You followed him, not having much time to marvel at his admittedly crowded yet extravagant office before he began talking. “Through your years here at Hogwarts we have seen you blossom in to a fine young witch, doing well in your studies, as well as the social aspect of your life here at this school.” You could see in his eyes that he was nervous, obviously stalling as he intro’d you to eat you were sure was going to be a very tense talk. “By being here i believe you've found a sense of belonging, I can see it in your eyes; one that was very much absent when you first arrived, if I’m correct?” You nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

He paced over to his desk, sitting down and gesturing to a small wooden stall that stood in front of it. You sat down as he ran his fingers along the edge of the desk, taking a deep breath before speaking. “We have been aware of your… situation since you first came here, which is why we only called out your first name in the sorting ceremony.” By ‘situation’ he was talking about your mother, Bellatrix LeStrange, of course, renowned deatheater and infamous number two to he-whi-shall-not-be-named.

“The staff and I agreed that ones family should not be a defining feature, much less one that would greatly impact your school life here.”

You nodded, not sure where he was going with this.

“Well, that’s no longer an issue.”

“What do you mean, sir?” You spoke softly, cautiously.

He reached into a drawer in his desk, shuffling though a pile of papers before placing a plain envelope on the table, sliding it across to you.

“The letter was from Azcaban prison.” It was about your mother. Great. “I think it’s best for you to read it in private; feel free to go back to class when you have.” He got up, walking past you and out if the office, leaving you and the envelope staring at each other.

You took breath in—whatever it was about it couldn't have been good, and it must’ve been important for Azcaban prison to send a letter. You reached into the envelope, pulling out a black piece of paper neatly folded, the edges of which were painted with a gold paint that made them look like razors. You unfolded it, and started to read the unnecessarily fancy white writing.

“To: Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

To whom it may concern,

We are writing to inform you of some new information that has just been collected, concerning a prisoner; Bellatrix LeStrange, and a student of yours that shares her name.

It was discovered during interrogation of miss LeStrange that the child that she called her daughter actually belongs to a couple, Stacy and Dave Foster, and was stolen from them as a toddler.

The child was never reported missing as LeStrange erased all memories of their daughter when she took her, and the child was too young to remember her real parents.

We believe that this information should be shared with the child, in the most discreet way possible, due to the sensitive nature of the subject.

…”

You sat back in the chair, calmly setting down the letter and returning it to the envelope, sitting in silence.

What the fuck.

You weren't sure how to process the information. You weren't sure what was going to happen now. You weren't sure what you wanted to happen. Although you felt angry, and slightly sick, you also felt a strange sense of relief wash over you; the knowledge that whatever evil ran through that woman veins wasn't in yours. the sick feeling in your throat subsided as you thought about it more.

You felt a little lost in that moment, not quite sure what to do except head back to class; so you did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> plot twistttttttt- oh, the angsttt


	8. Chapter 8

“Whats wrong?” Maple whispered, leaning over from her desk to talk to you. z

“Quiet.” Came from the front of the class, professor Lupin peering over his book.

“Nothing.” You whispered back.

“Sure?”

You nodded, turning back to your work, staring down at the blank page that you'd been looking at for the last half an hour, your quill sitting lazily on the desk beside it. Suddenly you felt something hit the back of your head, swivelling round to see what it was.

“Oi, you.” You heard Malfoy whisper from the seat behind you, throwing another piece of paper at you.

You shrugged over-dramatically, death glaring him as you looked at his smug face.

“You’re acting weird.”

“Thanks.” you went to turn back round and ignore him, instead getting hit by another scrunched up paper.

“What happened?” He said, his face looking extra punchable in that particular moment.

“Be quiet.” Lupin repeated louder, peering over his book again as you pretended to do the work.

“Nothing. Fuck off.” You said once Lupin went back to his book.

“Yeah, but-“ Draco was interrupted by the piercing thud of a book being slammed on a table, and angry footsteps approaching the pair of you.

You looked up, to see Lupin standing in-between you and Draco desk, glancing between the two of you.

“Fancy sharing with the class?” He said, raising an eyebrow.

Hoping it was a rhetorical question you stayed quiet, as Draco did what he usually did and sounded like a brat.

“No.” He said, crossing his arms.

“Well then,” Lupin continued. “See me after class.”

You laughed at Draco, pleased with the miserable expression on his face.

“You too.” He said ad he walked back to his desk, going back to his book and resting his feet on the desktop.

_Well, todays going great._

The class turned back to their work, abandoning staring at you as soon as they lost interest in your misery.

Draco huffed, throwing himself back in his seat as he rolled his eyes, doing his usual bratty act as he silently protested his punishment.

You spent the rest of the class staring at you blank piece of paper, letting your mind drift around as you distracted yourself with anything. As everyone filed out of the classroom, you and Draco stayed say down, awaiting your scolding form Professor Lupin as you kept your head down. When you three were the only ones left in the room, Lupin dropped a copy of “Magical Mushrooms and their Properties.” onto your desk, along with a stack of paper and a paperclip.

“Copy pages 133-153.” He said blankly, before collecting his briefcase and stopping by your desk on his way out. “You wont be able to leave until you have.” He said, before waving his wand a the doors and leaving, the sound of the doors slamming together echoing through the room, fading into silence.

Well, fuck.

You sighed, flipping to page 133 and staring at the millions of billions of words crammed onto the page, turning the white background grey with how much was written. You dropped your head onto the desk, slamming it onto the annoyingly thick book.

“This is your fault.” Draco sneered, getting up from his desk and standing next to yours, hovering above you.

“You’re the one that started talking!” You snapped your head up, scowling at him as you crossed your arms.

“Shouldn’t’ve responded then.” He said, walking towards the door.

You laughed at the absurdity of this statement, watching him walk towards the same doors that professor Lupin had cast a spell on two minutes prior.

“You’re not gonna leave.” You smiled, cheered up by the arrogant boy in front of you and his obliviousness.

“Please, It’s just a simple spell,” He said, taking out his wand and flicking his hair out of his face. “you may not understand it but it'll be easy for me to break.”

You turned your seat around, crossing your legs and resting your arm on your knee, cradling your head as you prepared for the show. “Go ahead, then.”

Draco looked at you offended, turning back to the door and waving his wand, saying some latin shit and replacing his wand in his pocket confidently. “See? Easy.”

You said nothing, waiting for the show to begin.

“Have fun in detention.” He said smugly, grabbing onto the handle of the door confidently.

As soon as his skin made contact with the door handle he was sent flying through the air, a bright spark throwing him halfway across the room. He hit the sone tiles with a satisfying ‘thwack’, groaning as he recovered from the shock of being such a pompous bastard.

You couldn't help but burst out in laughter, not bothering to conceal the amusement that you got from seeing Draco Malfoy flung across the room like a rag doll.

“Ugh,” He groaned. “shut up.”

You walked over to him, nudging him in the ribs with the toe of your shoe.

“Told you so.” You sang, mocking him as you leant over him, looking down at the grouchy expression on his face and smiling.

He rolled up, brushing down his trousers and walking up to you, standing so close that you could smell the peppermint aftershave dabbled on his face.

“Well if you think you're so much better than me,” He purred, leaning down so you were eye to eye, patronisingly resting his hands on his knees. “why don't you have a go?”

You smirked, tilting your head as you reached into your pocket, not breaking eye contact with Malfoy, and taking out your wand. “Alright.”

You stepped back from him, walking over to the door and stopping, flicking through the pages of memorised spells that you knew as you searched for a way to embarrass your enemy. Finally, you arrived on one that you'd read about in your week of not being resigned to the library; an incantation-lifting spell.

You recalled the movements, saying what you remembered to be the verse and bracing yourself for disaster.You froze, arm still outstretched as you waited for an explosion or fire or something disastrous. Nothing.

You hesitantly stepped forward and hovering your hand over the handle.

“Go on.” Draco said, leaning against the wall with a smug look on his face, obviously waiting for you to be thrown back and suffer the same fate as you.

You scowled, grabbing the handle and bracing. Again, nothing.

“Ha!” You exclaimed, happily hanging onto the handle while being firmly planted to the floor.

His smug smile immediately dropped as he realised that he might be in the wrong, immediately marching forward and swatting your hand away, touching the handle. He was getting increasingly more flustered, and it was hilarious. You watched as he pulled on both handles, trying to open the doors, but nothing budged. Weird. He tried again, leaning back, but the doors still wouldn't budge.

“Ha!” He returned turning to you. “We’re stuck in here now!” He said proudly, before realising what he just said and lowering his voice. “We’re stuck in here.”

You both paused for a second in awkward silence, neither of you willing to admit that it was your fault.

“I blame you.” You taunted, sitting back behind your desk.

“Hey!” He followed you, slamming his hands on your desktop and leaning forward. “I didn't do shit.”

“Except get fucking annihilated by a door.” You said under your breath, smirking.

He glared, the room going silent as you both thought of a way to get out and possibly avoid copying 20 pages of random facts about mushrooms.

As he thought, Draco jumped up, sitting on your desk with one foot rested on the desktop, resting his head on his knee as he thought. You had an idea, getting up and sitting at the professors desk at the front of the class, rifling through the desk drawers to look for a key, or maybe instructions on how to remove a spell from a door. You rifled through a surprisingly extensive collection of paperweights and about five snapped wands until you came to a locked drawer. It was definitely locked for a reason, and you wanted to know that reason, taking out your wand and holding it up to the lock.

“Alohamora.” You said, obviously intriguing Draco as he trawled over, sitting on the desk. “There’s about fifty chairs in here and you still have to sit on a fucking desk.” You said, watching a pile of papers scatter across the floor as Malfoy knocked them off with his foot.

“Shut up and look for someway to get us out of here.” He sighed.

You opened the drawer, looking down at the contents; bottles of various shapes and sizes were scattered throughout the drawer, each containing a different coloured liquid, with a label tied around the neck.

“Oh, shit.” You said, realising that these potions must be powerful if they had to be stored in a locked drawer.

“What?” Draco jumped down, standing behind you as he peered into the drawer.

You grabbed one of the bottles, a tall, thin one containing a sky blue liquid. You read the label:

‘Exstimulo Potion—used to increase spell power of casters spells’

“Handy.” You said, before slipping it into your pocket. There was surely a situation in which you'd need this, and its not like the professor was using it…

“Hey!” Malfoy whispered, almost like you and him weren't the only two locked in the room. “Don’t do that!”

“Why not?” You said, closing the drawer and hopping over the desk, sitting back down in your seat and putting your legs up on the desk. “It’s not like he’s using it.”

“He’ll notice.”

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.” You said, looking back down at the script-covered page in front of you. “Now shut up and find a way out of here.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I wrote either a Fredxreader, or a Georgexreader, would anyone read it? If so gimme ideas for scenes in it


	9. Chapter 9

You had been sat staring at the ceiling for about an hour, doing your best to not go insane from boredom as you counted the number of chips on the tiles. Malfoy was pacing up and down the rows, his face deep in thought when in reality he was probably thinking about what was for dinner. Well, that was if you got out in time for dinner.

“Maybe we should just, y’know, do the work?” Draco piped up, sighing in defeat.

“Nope.” You chirped, determined to avoid doing the work, even if you could've done it by now.

He paused, huffing as he threw himself down onto a random desk, slamming his head onto the wood and instantly regretting it. “This is your fault.”

“You talked to me first.”

You responded.”

You glared at him. “Shut up daddy issues.” And he did, leaving you to come up with a way of getting out.

You were about to suggest turning yourselves into slugs in the hopes that you could slide under the door, when you realised something. Getting your wand out you walked over to the double doors, standing a good 2 meters away incase you got thrown across the room. You paused, realising that, if this worked, you had just sat in a room with Malfoy for hours for no fucking reason.

“What’re you doing?” He walked over to you, scowling.

“Trying something.” You said, waving your wand at the doors and enunciating. “Alohamora.”

A loud click sounded form behind the wood as one of the doors creaked open. You and Draco looked at each other, both of you feeling adequately stupid as you stood in awkward silence.

“Well then…” You said, cautiously opening the door and peering round the corner, realising that, without the lighting that was illuminating the classroom, the corridor was unusually dark.

You turned back to Draco. “Oi, dickhead, what’s the time?”

He shrugged, looking around the room for a clock and pointing to one on the far wall: 8:23.

“Shit,” Draco cursed. “We missed dinner.”

You sighed, your stomach rumbling at the mention of food. “Well, I don't know about you but I'm hungry.” You said, leaving the room with Malfoy trailing behind. “And curfew’s ages away.”

“So?” He jogged to keep up with you as you marched down the corridor.

“So, I’m going to Hogsmeade to get some food.” You rounded the corner, passing a group of Ravenclaws as you walked through an archway to the courtyard. 

“Well I'm coming.”

“Fuck off are you coming.”

Malfoy seemed offended by this, throwing his arms in the air as you spoke. “Why not.”

You spun round, talking to him as you walked. “You’re irritating.”

You kept walking, passing various groups of students in their cliques, all staring at you as you marched to Hogsmeade with Malfoy trailing behind you. You somehow had the feeling that you weren't getting rid of him, instead choosing to ignore him as you continued down the path.

Hogsmeade was about a 10 minute walk, all of which you and Draco did in silence, neither of you really wanting to be near the other, but compromising for the promise of food.

You approached The Three Broomsticks, a pub in Hogsmeade that was very popular amounts students, and so was always packed with them. You walked in, the warmth in the air immediately washing over you as the sweet smell of butterbeer and pumpkin pasties hit you in the face. The jolly hum of chatter amongst the students littered around the room bounced off the room, and combined with the warm light from the candles on every table, made for a very welcoming atmosphere.

You went up to the bar, grabbing a large pumpkin pastie off of a small tray next to the till, and ordered a butter beer.

Draco tapped you on the shoulder, shrugging aggressively as you ordered.

You turned back, correcting yourself as you ordered another butter beer for him, putting another pastie on the table. The waiter rang you, up and you payed him—twice as much as you should have due to Malfoy being a bitch—and took your food, sitting down at a table in the far corner of the room.

Draco came and sat with you, snatching the pastie out of your hand as soon as he sat down opposite you.

“You’re welcome.” You bowed sarcastically, watching him take a bite out of the food you'd just payed for.

“Well, you kind of owe me.” He said as if it were nothing.

“What?”

“It’s your fault that we got held back and, consequently, missed dinner.”

“You talked to me first!” You almost shouted, amazed at how thick this boy was.

He simply shrugged, taking a sip of the beer and ignoring you, staring at the grooves on the wooden table that you were sat at. You rolled your eyes, taking a bite of the pastie which was surprisingly good, as was the butter beer.

You were off in your own little world when the door swung open, and the famed Harry Potter walked in, his two friends trailing behind him as they occupied a table. You watched Draco eyes follow him, filled with hatred as he scoffed, frowning when he saw the three of them laugh. You watched Malfoy with interest, wondering what could possibly make him hate Harry Potter, apart from the fact that he was kinda annoying.

“Why _do_ you hate him so much?” You asked casually,taking a sip of beer.

“What?” Draco snapped indignantly, seeming offended by this completely outrageous question,

“Potter; why do you hate him?”

“Because he's a smug prick, and everyone in that shit school feels the need to kiss his ass to make him feel better about being inherently mediocre.” He scowled at you like you'd just slapped him. You said nothing.

Immediately the atmosphere on your table grew colder, tension ripe in the air as you sat in silence, and although you liked how agitated Draco got you weren't sacrificing your mood just so that he could feel shit.

“Prepared for the game on Tuesday?” The game you were referring to was the Hufflepuff vs Slytherin quiddich match that was fast approaching.

Draco glanced at you suspiciously, finding your friendliness weird (In his defence, it was.) before answering. “Honestly, were going up against those oafs in Hufflepuff so I don't think we really have to prepare.” Of course he'd say that.

“Well,” You started smugly, knowing how much what you were about to say would annoy Draco. “Have fun being a keeper.”

His head immediately snapped up, scowling at the smug smirk plastered across your face. “And have fun making the team lose.” Was his, rather shit, comeback.

“I wouldn't if you hands refused to buy me a proper fucking broomstick.” You muttered, still salty about it.

“I would've bought you a broomstick if you weren't suck a bitch.”

“I wouldn't _be_ such a bitch if you weren't such a dick.” This argument again.

Instead of having to tax his tiny brain for any form of half-witted response, Draco kicked you under that table, scowling at you as he did.

“Hey!” You kicked back, obviously getting him harder because he winced back in pain grabbing his ankle.

“Stop being dramatic.” You mocked, watching him take himself all too seriously.

“That’s my bad ankle you dickhead! The one I broke because of _you_.” He pointed at you, rubbing his ankle and returning to his beer, downing the rest of it.

“Oh yeah,” You said, realising that he actually got hurt in order to save you. “I never thanked you for that.”

He looked up at you, half expectantly and half confused. Uncomfortable with the air of vulnerability that suddenly hung around you, you reverted to your natural state of not taking anything even remotely seriously.

“And I probably never will.” You smiled at him sarcastically, watching him chuckle and roll his eyes at you.

You both sat for a minute, finishing your respective food and drink, watching as the various other students all go up in their groups and headed back for curfew. You watched Harry get up, accompanied by the other pair, and walk out of the door, Malfoys eye fixated on him.

“We should probably go.” He said, standing up, his gaze still on the door.

“Ok,” You stood up, brushing down your uniform. “But you’re not harassing Harry.”

He looked at you, confused as to how you read his mind. “I wasn’t going to.”

“Don’t lie.”

“Well it’s not harassment if I accidentally bump into him on the way back.” He said as you both left, the warmth on your skin slowly dissipating as the cold dusk air welcomed you outside.

“It is,” You said as you walked past the other shops, the faded reflections of the streetlamps sitting on their windows like fireflies. “Plus, you’re irritating enough as it is, no-one needs you annoying them even more.”

He looked at you like you'd just shot his dog in front of him, glaring intently. “Well its not like we can avoid him.” You could see the silhouette of the trio in the distance, walking together as they got stared down.

“Well actually,” You remembered a conversation you'd overheard between two students in the year above you, Fred and George Weasley; They said that there was a shortcut through the woods that was about ten minuted quicker than the usual route from Hogsmeade back to Hogwarts. “There is a shortcut, and if you insist on bullying Harry then I will force you to take it.”

“Im not gonna bully him,” He said, already solidifying the fact that he was taking the shortcut. “It’s not bullying if we both hate each other.”

“Right then,” you said, looking around to your left, and seeing the giant indent of footprints going into the woods, accompanied by a few crushed plants. “C’mon.”

You stopped, crossing your arms as you stood next to the path. Malfoy halted, turning round to you and exasperatedly shrugging his shoulders. “What?”

“We’re taking the shortcut.”

“No, we’re not.”

You walked up to him, grabbing him by the tie and pulling him behind you. “Don’t be a brat, Malfoy.”

“Hey! Let go!” He swatted at your hands.

You let him go, hearing him tut at you as he straightened down his uniform, walking beside you as you followed the path.

“We’re not meant to be in here.” He muttered somewhat quietly.

“I won’t tell if you don’t.” You said, studying the floor for the pathway; it was pretty straightforward.

Although it promised to be a faster route there was one mistake that you'd made in going through the woods; due to lack of whatever slight there was left it was far colder this way, and you were only wearing a shirt and a thin jumper. You felt the cold seep through the fabric, envious of Draco, who was wearing a Slytherin robe.

You clenched your jaw so he couldn't hear your teeth chattering as you walked, stepping over various fauna and flora as the sun went down fast, only making the temperature drop more.

“I can hear you shivering.” Draco stated.

“I’m sorry?” You weren't sure what he wanted you to do about it; spontaneously combust?

“It’s irritating.”

“Well excuse me, your majesty, the I may have irritated you by being fucking freezing.”

Malfoy let out an annoyed exhale of breath, unclipping his robe and dropping it off his shoulders, swinging it round yours. You stopped, confused as he stood in front of you, wrapping it round you and fastening it at the front. You watched his face freeze in concentration as he closed it, reaching behind you and pulling the hood up over your head, leaving him in just a shirt.

“Now will you stop complaining?”

You were slightly starstruck, but also warmer, so you took the deal. “If you say so.”

The cloak was far to big on you, and billowed in the breeze that ran along the forrest floor. You wrapped it around yourself, the faint scent of peppermint aftershave floating up from the fabric. You could see Draco from the coroner of your eye, his arms crossed and pulled tight to his chest and his jaw clenched, trying not to look like he was feeling the cold. He was.

You walked for about another two minutes before you came back to the path, getting back onto Hogwarts grounds just in time to get to the common room for curfew. You and Draco walked to the Slytherin common room in silence, listening to the out-of-context conversations of others students as they passed you, heading to their dorms.

As you entered the common room you noticed how it was completely empty, the only life in there being the warm crackling of the fire that stayed lit to warm up the dorms.

“Fuck yeah.” You whispered, running to the fire and sitting in front of it, holding up your hands to warm them up.

You heard Draco suppress a chuckle, walking up and sitting on the other side of the fireplace. The muted orange light of the fire lit up his face, the dark blush on the tip of his nose fading as he warmed up.

You unclipped his robe, taking i toff and balling it up, throwing it into his lap. “Cheers, dickhead.” Was the most appropriate thanks you could think of, turning back to holding your hands up to the fire.

Draco hummed a ‘you’re welcome’, his eyes catching on your hands as you held them up.

“Fucking hell your hands are small.” He said aggressively, his voice dampened by a tone of tiredness.

“Well excuse me, my hands are normally sized, thank you.” You looked over at him, pointing to his hands as he rested them on his lap. “Maybe you’ve just got hulk hands.”

He raised his eyebrows, smirking offendedly. “Hulk hands?”

You nodded.

“Maybe you’ve just got mouse hands.”

“Wow, ok.” You said, feigning offence at his comment.

“Well, don’t blame me; it’s not my fault your hands are, like, ten times smaller than mine.”

“Oh, come on. That’s a massive exaggeration.”

Draco looked own at your hands, tilting his head. “Wellllll…”

“Right.” You swivelled round to face him, grabbing his wrist and holding up his hand to yours, placing your palms together. “See? It’s not even that big a difference.”

He gave you a look that said ‘really?’ before folding the top half of hid fingers down, showing that his hands were was bigger than yours. You frowned, whisking your hand away and turning back to the fire.

“Oh, shut up.” You muttered.

Draco chuckled, folding his robe in his lap as he looked into the fire.

You both heard footsteps come from the stairs down to the corridor, realising that it was past curfew as quickly standing up, crouching behind the long, black sofa that shielded you from view. It was only Snape checking that everyone was in bed, but one of his favourite hobbies was giving students detention, and you were trying to avoid that. You waited until you heard him leave until you stood up, checking that he was actually gone until you spoke.

“Well, night dickhead.” You said to Malfoy as you bid him goodnight.

“Night fucker.” He returned as you both headed up to your dorms.

You crashed onto the bed, your fingers still kind of numb from the cold as you got into you pyjamas, sliding into bed. The faint smell of peppermint still lingered on your shirt as you took it off, pausing to take it in, before feeling weird and chucking it onto the floor with the rest of your uniform.

You thought about what just happened, and how fucking weird it was. You still hated Malfoy—that was a definite—but what you did that evening was weirdly fun, apart form almost getting frostbite.

You pushed it to the back of your head, forgetting about it as you fell asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for not updating--I started college today and it was fucking weird.
> 
> on another note; AAA here comes the unintentional fluff aka my whole brand   
> x


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW// people getting hurt?? Not sure if that needs a tw but just incase x

You stood with the rest of the Slytherin team, huddle in a circle as the team captain Marcus Flint gave what was one of the worst pep-talks you'd ever received, which pretty much consisted of ‘If you're losing, don’t.’ which wasn't particularly helpful.

You were going up against Hufflepuff, and it was your first game as a seeker, the nerves making your hands shake slightly as you kept them strapped onto the scarred wood of your broomstick.

Marcus stopped jabbering as he locked eyes on your broom, looking up at you disappointed. “Really? You’re going out on _that_?” He nodded towards your broom.

“It’s the only broom I have.” Draco was still to proud to admit that he should probably balance out the team and get you one.

Marcus grunted, looking around exasperatedly at the other players. He looked at a tall boy to your left, pointing at his broom. “You. You’re shit—swap brooms with her.”

The boy made no objections, handing you his broomstick as he snatched yours. You looked over to Draco, who was shooting you an annoyed look.

The whistle blew and the gate opened, shedding the harsh light on the team as they all flew out, dramatically taking their positions.

Draco stood next to you, mounting his broom as he nudged you in the arm. “Now remember; when you fuck this up, try not to cry too hard, don’t want to embarrass yourself.”

You scowled at him, stepping over your newly acquired nimbus 2001 and leaning forward. “Break a leg.” You said to him with a smile, before dropping your face into a scowl. “Literally.”

You flew out to join the rest of the team, hovering in your position as you waited for the golden snitch to be released. You fixed your eyes on Hufflepuffs seeker, Cedric Diggory, as you made eye contact, getting a smirk back. You nodded your head to him, signalling good luck, before you heard a shout, and a whistle, and the glimmer of the golden snitch swerving to the air.

You once again underestimated the speed of the broomstick you were on, only having any real experience on the old, clunky school ones, and you almost got knocked off it by the force of the kickback, but you held on, determined to win.

The snitch went straight up for a second, then down, then left, right, left, left, right, down…

It was much faster than it was in the practise matches, and every time it switched directions you were almost tipped off the broom, but you held on for dear life as you chased it round the arena, Diggory flying next to you.

You were following it quite well when you heard a swift ‘shhh’ coming towards you, and a hurried “Watch out!” coming from one of your teammates. You turned your head just in time to see a bludger flying at your head. You dodged it, barely, quickly regaining speed on the snitch, which was now headed in the opposite direction. You heard cheers in the background as someone scored a goal, but you couldn't afford to be distracted by it; you one job was to catch the shiny golden bastard that would win you this match.

You continued chasing it, rivalling Diggory as he followed suit, for a few minutes, successfully staying on the broom the whole time. You were neck-and-neck with Cedric, only a few inches away form the snitch when another bludger speeding towards you. You ducked, narrowly avoiding it as is whooshed past your ear. The ball hit the front of Cedrics broom, spinning him out of control and setting him back a considerable amount as you continued your pursuit, gaining on the snitch fast. You reached out, your fingertips practically grazing the smooth gold that covered the ball, leaning forward.

You heard a shout from behind you, glancing back to see one of the beaters on the Hufflepuff team hit a bludger into Malfoys shoulder, spinning him round and pushing him off his broom. He almost fell, holding on with one hand as he tried to pull himself up. You turned back to the snitch, considering your options.

Dracos life: Victory.

You tried to ignore it, feeling Diggory quickly gaining on you as you glanced round again, hoping that another, less occupied, teammate would held Draco, but they were all too wrapped up in being snarky to the other team that they didn't notice. _Wow, the loyalty was fierce._

Diggory came up beside you, reaching fro the snitch. You could've easily got it, if only you had a few more seconds, but you'd already made your decision.

Reluctantly, you swung your broom round, leaving Cedric to catch the snitch as you fixed you eyes on Draco. You were about 10 meters away form him when his fingers slipped, and he went hurtling towards the ground. You leaned down, speeding to him and knocking into his body, wrapping an arm around him and keeping one firmly holding onto the broomstick. You swept him up, cradling his torso in the crook of your elbow as he clung onto you, scrambling on to your broom as he wrapped a hand in the neck of your cloak.

You heard cheers erupt from around you as you heard the announcer say “And Hufflepuff WINS!”

You sighed in disappointment, flying down to the ground, and crumpling onto the grass, Dracos weight pulling you down. He was still clinging onto you, one arm wrapped around your neck and the other tight to your arm, and you could hear his scared whimpers as he buried his head in the crook of your neck. You sat on the turf, your arm still wrapped around him as you caught your breath, realising what had just happened.

“You can let go now.” You said, Draco immediately pulling away and straightening down his clothes.

For a second, you saw the anxiety ridden look of fear the stained his face a pale white, before he clears his throat, standing up and acting like nothing happened. You stood up, watching him wipe a bead of sweat from his neck and searching fro him broomstick, which had dropped to the ground.

He went to pick it up, reaching down and immediately recoiling, barking in pain as he grabbed his shoulder.

“Fuck!” He cursed, bringing his hand to his chest and clinging onto his shoulder, the one that had been hit with the blundger that knocked him off his broom.

You walked over to him, half concerned, half amused.

“Whats wrong?” You asked him.

“What does it fucking look like?!” He snapped back, shooting you a death-glare.

By this time the rest of the team had landed, the majority of them just leaving in disappointment.

“C’mon then.” You said to Draco, who seemed confused. “Nurses office.”

You walked back to the castle, listening to him whinge non-stop as you walked. You were about halfway there when he insisted you stop.

“Can we wait here for a moment-“ He said, stopping in the middle of the field.

You whipped around, ready to berate him for acting like a little bitch, but the genuinely pained look on his face knocked the words off your tongue.

“Sure.” You said quietly, take aback by the infamously pompous Draco Malfoy, hunched in front of you, clutching his arm as he held back tears. “Sit.” You commanded, sitting down in the grass.

The field was empty, the rest of the students had already gone back to the school, not slowed down by a prick with a fucked up shoulder.

He sat down, wincing as he bent his arm, resting it on his knee. You shuffled over to him, romping up your sleeves and taking his good hand away from his shoulder.

“What the fuck are you doing?”

“Seeing how bad your shoulder is.” You were actually seeing if you could fix it with a spell, so he’d shut the fuck up about it, but he didn't need to know that.

You unbuttoned the green cape that hung over his shoulders, sliding it carefully halfway down his arm, lifting the loose jersey over his head and upping it on the floor next to you. Grabbing his shirt, you pulled the neck down, over his shoulder to reveal a messy, blue bruise decorating the majority of his upper arm. It was a bright contest with the sharp, pale lines that sculpted out his exposed jaw and collar bones, and it looked painful.

“Shit.” You said, kinda concerned. “Can you feel your fingers?”

“Huh?”

You took Dracos hand in yours gently stoking your thumb over his. “Can you feel this?”

“N-not particularly.” He stuttered hesitantly, shifting a bit.

“Ok, so It’s probably broken.”

“Fucks sake.” He muttered.

You let go of his hand, grabbing his jersey off the floor and standing up. “C’mon: nurses office.”

You continued your journey to the infirmary, Draco continuing to complain the whole way there.

When you finally got there, the nurse gave him a cup of clear liquid which you recognised as that gross shit that you had when you hurt your arm. Although he was hurt, it was eternally amusing to watch the disgust on Dracos face as he took a sip, train this best not to spit it out.

The nurse brought over a sling, placing it on the bed and re-filling the cup. She was about to turn to Draco when a first year burst through the infirmary doors, looking as if he'd just run two laps of the school grounds.

“Someone just got hit by the comping willow!” He shouted, gesturing for the nose to follow, which she did, scuttling to the doors. She glanced round at you for a second.

“Top off. Sling. Two glasses. Bed” She jogged after that student, letting the doors swing shut, leaving you stood in front of Draco as you both kept you eyes fixed on the door, not sure what to do.

“Guess I'm the nurse now.” You laughed nervously, only now noticing how quiet the room was.

“No-fucking-way.” Draco interjected, shuffling away from you on the bed where he was sat.

“Whatddya mean?” You asked, offended that he didn't trust you.

“You’ll just make it worse.”

“I’m not gonna hit you with another bludger, calm down.” You weren't really keen on taking care of him either, but the sooner he was done, the sooner you could leave, and not be subject to his pathetic whining anymore. “Plus, who else is there?” You gestured around the empty room, wondering why there was only one nurse at the moment, and chalking it up to a plot hole.

After a second of silent deliberation, Malfoy sighed, rolling hid eyes. “Fine.”

You braced yourself for the onslaught of criticism that was expectantly imminent, rubbing the back of your neck.

“Top off then.” You said.

“What?”

“That’s what the nurse said; Top off. Sling. Two glasses. Bed.”

“Oh.” Malfoy went to grab the bottom of his shirt, forgetting about his shoulder and wincing in pain as he moved his arm. “Ow, fuck.”

“You ok?”

“Yes, I'm ok” He snapped, not ok.

You crossed your arms, cocking your hip and ring an eyebrow as you shot him a look that said ‘really, bitch’.

“You sure?” You asked, giving him an opportunity to ask for help.

He hesitated, looking away at the wall and biting his lip. “No.” He muttered, admitting defeat.

You grabbed the bottom of his top, your cold hands brushing his stomach.

“Ah!” He flinched. “Your hands are cold!”

“Stop complaining, they're not that cold!” You were really fed up with his whining by now.

“Yes, they are!”

You would've just ignored him, if it weren't for your complete inability to take any situation seriously. You pressed your cold hands against his stomach, his soft, warm skin proving a great contrast to yours. He jumped away, scowling at you as you laughed at his overreaction.

You lifted his shirt over his head, revealing his crystal white skin underneath, that matched the angular curves of his body and made him look like a marble statue. You guided the sleeve off of his bad arm, careful not to touch it. Your fingers brushed his as you took his top off, but luckily he couldn't feel them. You folded his top, putting it next to him on the bed before picking up the sling.

You held it up in front of you, not 100% sure how a bit of material would hold up his arm but you had a go, trying your best to remember what a sling looked like. You bent his arm slowly, grimacing apologetically as this obviously hurt him, wrapping the material underneath it. You bent over him, putting a knee on the bed to keep you steady as you brought the two ends of the sling behind his neck. You could feel the heat radiate off of his bare chest, and feel his breath on your arm as you leant over him. The faint scent of peppermint hung around him, the same on that was on his normal robe. You tied it behind his neck, brushing his hair out of the hair do you didn't catch it in the knot, before stannic back up, checking to see if it looked even remotely right which, thank god, it did.

The next thing the nurse said was ‘Two Glasses’ of what you presumed she meant was the gross shit she just gave him.

The bottle on the nightstand was pale grey, and looked like a ribcage which you presumed indicted what to was used for; something to do with fixing bones, maybe? You filled a glass, handing it to him.

“Drink up!” You smiled, waiting happily for him to have to drink the vile liquid.

He pushed it back, smiling at you in the same overzealous, sarcastic way. “No!”

“Yes.” You said, giving it back to him. “You’ve already had one glass, down this and thats it.”

He grunted, looking at eh cup with disgust before drinking it as fat as he could.

You quietly chanted “Chug! Chug! Chug!” as he drank it, making him smirk as he drank it like a considerably large shot.

He scrunched up his not in disgust putting the glass back on the nightstand.

“And now, you gotta go to bed, I guess?” You said, recalling the nurses instructions.

Draco looked behind you, at the window, and the light coming in from said window that lit up the room.

“It’s like 4pm.” He said, unimpressed.

“Don’t blame me, you’re the one who fell off the broom.”

“Only because I was too busy watching you to pay attention!” He snapped, annoyed at your accusation.

“What?”

“I was making sure you didn't fall off again, dipshit!” He snapped, his face freezing in a moment of realisation and panic as he realised what he said. “So you didn’t embarrass the team.” He said much quieter, shifting where he sat.

“Ok, well look where that got you, dickhead.” You retorted, ignoring the awkwardness that had suddenly filled the air.

“Never mind about that, I’m not going to bed at 4.” He said, his voice returning to its usual pompous tone.

“Read a book.” You offered.

“No.”

“Then get over yourself?” You shrugged sarcastically, turning to leave.

“Hey! Where are you going?”

“To change and, like, get on with my day?”

Draco sighed, already seeming extremely bored. “You can’t just leave me here!”

“Watch me.” You started to walk away, but got interrupted by him calling after you.

“Hey! Wait,” You turned round. “You at least have to stay for a bit, so I'm not bored out of my mind.”

You crossed your arms, chuckling. “But I thought that I was ‘supremely irritating’?”

“I’d rather be supremely irritated than bored.”

You considered your options, wondering if it was worth having to stay in a room, alone, with Drao Malfoy.

“I’ll stay.” You started, racing a finger. “But only if you get me one of those fancy brooms, the Nimbus 2001”

Without hesitation Draco said. “Done!”

You walked back, sitting on the bed opposite him and bracing for a vicious cycle of bullying and being bullied for who knows how long—but it was worth it for a proper fucking broomstick.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooooo gurllllll the tensioooonnn thoooo


	11. Chapter 11

You were laying on one of the horrendously uncomfortable beds, staring at the ceiling as you chatted to Draco.

“I dunno,” You said, zoning out a little. “If you could be _any_ animal, surely a weasel is a bit…”

“A bit what?” Draco turned his head to face you as he laid on the next bed over.

You turned your head to face him. “Well, pathetic.”

“Fuck off.” He scoffed. “Go on, what would you be then?”

You thought about it for a good while, considering your options. Cat? Too basic. Bird? would probably get eaten by a cat. Mouse? Would probably get eaten by a bird.

“A bear.” You said confidently.

“Why?”

“I dunno, they look cuddly but are, like, super scary.”

“That’s dumb.” Obviously he’d run out of good comebacks, resulting in sounding like he was fresh out of year four.

“Like a weasel’s any better.”

“Ok, ok.” Malfoy said, waving his hands in the air as he spoke. “New question.”

You went on like that for ages, until the bright light steaming in from behind the window turned into a dusky glow, and the warmness of the sun had subsided, making way for the coldness of the shadows that enveloped the room. You had been talking for so long that both of you were getting tired; you could see it in Dracos face as he tried to keep his eyes open, his voice dulling and becoming soft, contrasting with the insults that he threw around every few sentences so you wouldn't forget that he was actually a prick. You were drifting between being asleep and awake, almost gone when you heard the doors to the infirmary swing open, the nurse walking in and waving her wand, lighting the candle on the table beside you. She stood at the end of the bed you were laying on, tapping her foot as she waited for you to respond.

You sat up, shrugging at her as you rubbed your eyes.

“You can go now.” She dismissed you, before locking some bottles away in a cabinet on the far side of the room, getting ready to leave for the night.

You looked around: it was completely dark outside, and you could see the faint glow of the moon peeking out from behind the clouds, laying a thin blanket of cold white light over the grass around the building. You looked over to Draco, who was laying on his side, eyes closed and—for once—silent.

You swung your legs round, preparing to stand up as you realised how tired you actually were.

The nurse walked towards the doors, glancing back at you before she left. “Get to your dorm, please.” She gently closed the door so she didn't wake up the person that was actually meant to be there.

You stood up, walking quietly past Dracos bed, or so you thought. He groaned, rolling over and rubbing his eyes, looking up at you.

“Where are you going?” His voice was disgustingly soft, sleep lacing it with a gravelly tone as he talked.

“Bed.”

He reached out, grabbing your wrist and holding on. “Stay.”

“Why?” You were extremely confused.

“I don’t wanna be alone.”

For a moment, you let those words seep into your brain, hearing the tenderness in his voice as he pleaded with you, before pushing it to the back of your mind. Sighing, you gave in.

“Fine.” You weren't really going to stay all night, just wait until the fucker fell asleep then sneak off and hopefully not get caught wondering round past curfew.

Draco had closed his eyes again, pressing his face into the shitty, thin pillow that was on the bed as he held on to you. You tried to pull your wrist from his grasp, but he wouldn't let go, instead just groaning in annoyance and pulling your arm down, hugging it as he tried to sleep.

Currently, you were half-crouched next to his bed, trying to free your arm but failing, so you just gave in. You sat down on the edge of the bed, chuckling slightly at the situation you were in.

You could feel Dracos shallow breaths on your fingertips, the warmth from his bare chest permeating your top and contrasting with the rest of your cold body. The room was insanely chilly, especially as you sat there in a thin undertow, having left your quiddich robe somewhere else, that you conveniently couldn't remember.

You rested your free arm on your knee, using your hand as a head-rest as you sat there, listening to the muffled sound on Draco breathing, combined with the weak crackle of the candle beside you that cast a warm, orange light onto his face.

You studied him, recognising how pretty he was when he wasn't calling you a bitch. His white-blond hair looked ginger in this light, his pale skin looking unusually warm. You’d always thought of him as a cold person, not only in behaviour but in nature, but remembering him asking you to stay somewhat challenged that idea.

Draco budged up, pushing you off the edge of the bed.

“Hey, Draco,” You whispered to him, getting a sleepy grunt in response. “dude move up.” You supposed you could spare a few more minutes.

He didn't respond, leaven you once again half crouched next to his bed as your arm was trapped. You carefully slid it from out of his hands, watching his brows furrow as he tried to grab it again.

“Don’t go.” He muttered again.

“I’m not.” You whispered back, walking round to the other side of the bed and slumping down in the free space.

As soon as you sat down, Draco rolled over to you, his head next to your torso. He absentmindedly wrapped his arm around your waist, using you as a pillow as he leant his head on you. You would have moved him, but the room was really cold, and he was warm, so you didn't want to sacrifice your own comfort.

You leaned back against the uncomfy frame of the bed, looking at the ceiling which you'd studied more today than you'd studied any of your actual subjects that whole year. You felt yourself drifting off again, distractedly resting your hand on Dracos head. You'd never noticed how soft his hair was, running your fingers through it and feeling the silky white hair fall over them. You distractedly kept running your hand through his hair as you rested your head, slowly giving in to unconsciousness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> soz for the short chapter; I'm lazy <3
> 
> also oooooooo gurlllll im pulllin' out all the classic ff tropes todayyyyyyy soft Draco has my heart


	12. Chapter 12

You were woken up by the harsh light of day slapping you across the face, making your eyes sting as you opened them. You could hear the dull hum of school life in the distance, a warm contrast to the silence you remembered falling asleep to. You raised a hand to your face, rubbing your eyes and yawning, looking up at the ceiling. You had slouched down in the night, and were now laying down on the bed, Dracos head resting on your shoulder as he wrapped his arm around you. You felt the warm brush of his breathing along your neck as he rested his head beneath your chin, his soft hair pressed against your skin. Looking around, you realised that your other hand was wrapped around him, your fingers lazily tangled in his hair.

You looked around the room for a clock—8:27am, about half an hour until classes actually started. The sound of the doors swinging open made you jump, and woke Draco, feeling him flinch as the nurse walked in, dumping a stack of papers on a table on the far side of the room, sorting through them.

Draco sat up slowly, rubbing his eyes and yawning. The sling wrapped around his arm was still there, and he was reminded of this when he tried to stretch, wincing back in pain. You sat up next to him, realising you were still in your quiddich uniform.

The nurse sauntered aver to where you were sat, holding a bottle of something. She looked at you, immediately frowning.

“You may go.” She said expectantly, immediately shooing you away with her hands. “Go on, get to class!” She said as she ushered you out of the doors, not even letting you make eye contact with Malfoy, which you were slightly thankful for.

Still groggy with sleep, you made your way to the Slytherin dorms, getting to your bedroom and undressing out of your quiddich clothes, putting on your uniform.

“And where the hell have you been!?” Maple said as she appeared out of nowhere, throwing herself down on your bed as you straightened out your shirt.

“The nurses office.” You replied, your voice scratchy and dull.

“Wait, why? Are you ok?”

“Yeah, just an accident at yesterdays game, is all.” Technically, you weren't lying; you just decided to leave out the part that you weren't the one in the accident. “I’m fine now, though.”

“Ok, well we have Divination in about twenty minutes, so hurry up—I don't wanna be late again.”

you obeyed her, finishing getting dressed and straightening out your hair, tying it in a messy knot as you stared at yourself in the mirror. One coil of thick, black heir hung down by the side of your face, reminding you of who you were, or rather who you thought you were. Images of the letter that you read in Dumbledores office echoed through your head, sending a spike of pain through your chest. You ignored it, pushing the feeling down and replacing it with thoughts about Divination.

You and Maple walked to the charms classroom, slightly exhausted by the trek up the un-ending stairs, but nonetheless enthusiastic. You found Divination interesting; being told about yourslef, your nature, your past—it was all intriguing.

You sat across from Maple one on of the small, round tables at the back of the room, watching professor Trelawney fumble through a small box of leaves.

“Good morning class!” She greeted you, swaying her hands though the air dramatically, as theatrical as ever. “Today we will be learning how to read tea leaves!”

“Great,” Maple whispered to you, leaning over the table. “This doesn't sound boring _at all_.”

You rolled you eyes in response, turning back to the teacher.

You spent the next twenty minutes of the lesson fumbling around with tea leaves, grinding them up, making tea, draining the tea and so on and so on until the professor was happy with what you'd done. You, along with most other pupils, had to start again, professor Trelawney being a perfectionist, but you finally had come to a point where the whole class met your expectations.

“Now, I would like you to swap cups with the person sitting opposite you,” She announced, the dull shuffle of tea cups being pushed across tables rising. “And now look down into the cup and see if you can recognise what it’s telling you.”

You looked down into the cup that Maple had just given you, seeing mostly just an indistinct clump of soggy leaves. You looked closer squinting your eyes to help recognise a shape. It looked like a body, with large, round ears, and a thin, winding tail.

“A mouse!” You said excitedly to Maple. “What does a mouse mean?”

“BEWARE!” Professor Trelawney had snuck up behind you, clutching the back of your seat as she jabbered on. “Beware of a thief!”

“Oh.” You said, looking at Maple. “Beware of a thief then, I guess.”

“I will?” She said, looking very confused by the whole ordeal.

“And what, my dear, can you see at the bottom of that cup?” Trelawney turned to Maple, gazing at her through thick-rimmed glasses.

“Oh, uh, I’m not quite sure—it looks a bit like a chicken?” She said, turning the cup round as she studied it, raining an eyebrow.

“Well, let me see.” The professor took the cup in her hand, looking into it. “Oh!” She exclaimed, setting the cup down and looking at you, a wide smile embroidered across her face. “A dove, my dear, represents affection.” She scuttled away to another table, leaving you and Maple to consider your fates.

“A thief, huh?” Maple said, scratching her head. “I swear if you steal anything from me!” She said, jokingly.

You held up your hands. “Hey, don't look at me!”

She thought for a second. “Affection… Maybe you’ll finally get a boyfriend!”

You laughed over dramatically, slapping your knee before stopping dead silent looking at her. “No.”

“Why not?”

“All the boys here are either absolute knob heads, or taken.”

“Ot teachers…” Maple muttered, staring off into space.

“Hey, just because _you're_ in love with professor Lupin!”

“I am not!” She totally was; which was why Defence Against the Dark Arts was her new favourite subject. “But I _am_ still jealous that you got detention with him.”

“Technically he just _gave_ me detention.” You explained. “Leaving me locked in a room.” You chuckled.

“By yourself? That can’t be legal.”

“Nah,” You paused, thinking back to it. “With Malfoy.”

“Yikes.” Maple winced. “Sounds fun.”

You laughed in response.

“So when did he let you out?” She continued.

Technically he didn’t, I just undid the hex on the door and left.” You said, with a slight air of arrogance as you looked back on that particular achievement with pride.

“Woah, that must’ve taken ages! How’d ya do it?” She leaned forward on the desk expectantly as she waited for a mind-blowing answer.

“Oh, y’know, just remembered some stuff from a ‘Hexes and Jinxes’ book, nothing too hard.” You said, conveniently leaving out the fact that you used a spell that a literal toddler could've used.

“Well it must’ve been hard because you didn't show up to dinner that day, and came back to the dorms super late.” She caught you out.

“Well we went to Hogsmeade to get some food, since we missed dinner.”

Maple raised her eyebrows at you. “‘ _We?_ ’”

“Uh, yeah?” You said slightly confused.

“Like, you and Draco?”

“Yes.”

“Draco Malfoy.”

“ _No_ ,” You said sarcastically. _“One of the many other ‘Draco’s that attend Hogwarts.”_

“You and Draco Malfoy on a date, who wouldda thought.” She said casually, leaning back on her chair.

“What? No! It was _not_ a date!” You said firmly, scowling at the mere insinuation of such an idea.

“You and a boy going, after classes, to Hogsmeade, together, to get food, by yourselves? Meets all the criteria for a date.”

“Well it wasn't like that.” You insisted. “It just happened that we both missed dinner, because of the detention, so we were both hungry, and we both decided to go get food. Nothing more than being hungry.” You huffed.

Maple shot you a mocking look that said ‘someones getting defensive’ before chuckling slightly.

“Besides,” You continued, adamant about getting your point across. “He’s a prick.”

“Amen.” Maple said; at least you agreed on one thing.

You were dismissed from divination, and decided to head to the common room for break, followed by Maple who was jabbering on about something unimportant that was happening in the celebrity world.

When you got to the common room, you were greeted by a flying book, narrowly missing your head as it got launched through the air.

“Hey, watch it!” Crabbe shouted from across the room, picking the book up and showing it throwing it back the way it came from.

“Yeah,” Goyle interjected, catching the book and scowling at you. “You could've hit our book.”

“Hit your book?” You crossed your arms, fully ready to batter the two dickheads in front of you. “You threw it at me!”

“Did not!” Crabbe said, mirroring your position.

“Did too!”

“Did not!” Goyle repeated, standing next to his fat friend and crossing his arms, making the pair of them look like bouncers at a nightclub.

“Did too!”

“Did no-“

“Oh will you two shut the fUCK up!” Maple screetched, throwing her arms in the sir dramatically as she barged past them, pushing them apart as she headed up to the dorms. “I need to get some books—just try not to murder them while I'm gone.”

“No promises.” You said, watching her jog up the stairs and disappear from view, leaving you and your two nemeses to stew in the angry air that bubbled around you.

“Did not…” You heard Goyle mutter, tipping you over the edge.

You reached into your cloak, brandishing your wand at his face and glaring intently at him. you weren't quite sure what exactly you were threatening to do to him, but you hoped that he’d just back off and no-one would have to find out.

Behind you you heard footsteps descending into the common room, meeting you with an exasperated sigh as they stopped behind you.

“What did you do now, Goyle?” Malfoys voice asked.

“Nothing!”

You put your wand away, seeing no need for you to keep it held to the large boys forehead. “He threw a book at me.” You admitted.

“Actually, _I_ threw a book at you!” Crabbe boasted, before realising what he just said. “What I mean is-“

“Just go wonder around elsewhere.” Draco commanded, and like puppies they obeyed, scuttling off to lurk in some corridor.

It was only now that you realised how awkward this situation was, and although the common room wasn't empty, you and Draco were now stood opposite eachother, the universe signalling you to have a conversation.

You weren't quite sure how to play this to be honest—considering the fact that you'd spent around four or five hours laid in an infirmary bed next to Dracos, listing off various questions, and answering them with varying degrees of insults being thrown back at you depending on your answer (Not to mention him using you as a pillow, and you absent-mindedly playing with his hair as you both fell asleep together) you weren't sure how to act towards him.

You opted for the easiest way out; Wait for him to talk and mimic whatever tone of conversation he holds. You just hoped that he'd reverted back to hating you—it was much easier and, frankly, more fun.

“Why did Crabbe throw a book at you?” He asked, his facial expressions unwavering, no indicator of how he was playing this.

You shrugged, making an ‘I dunno’ face to accompany.

You paused, waiting a response.

“You probably deserved it.” Malfoy sneered, walking away to go and sit on the—admittedly uncomfortable—leather couch that cornered the fire.

You walked past him, hitting him round the back of the head as you passed, earning an annoyed grunt which made you chuckle. You headed to your dorm to check on Maple, and see what was taking her so long.

“Hurry up!” You said, walking in to see her slowly stacking books.

“Calm down, it’s not like you actually wanna go back to class, is it?”

It was not. Mostly because the rest of that day was jam packed with countless minutes of never-ending boredom. You don't know what made you zone out, but you just did not want to be there. Nevertheless, you made it through the day, only getting one teacher mad at you for messing about in class, which, for you, was a win.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry this took me so long to write-i just started college and it takes a lot of effort to ignore people x


	13. Chapter 13

You were sat in potions, resting your head in your hands and staring at the brick wall behind Snape as he dramatically flicked through a text book. The class were chatting among themselves as they waited for the professor to officially start the lesson, filling the room with a lazy buzz.

Maple turned to you. “What is taking him so long to find in that bloody textbook!” She gestured towards the front, where Snape glared intently at the page in front of him.

“Fuck knows.” You moped, boredom washing over your brain as you counted the amount of dust particles that had congregated on the top of the pile of books on the right of the professor.

You were busy not paying attention when a familiar blond walked into the room, sitting down in front of you. Finally; some entertainment.

You were just about to fully launch the book in front of you at Dracos head, when Snape stood up, clasping his hands behind his back as he addressed the class.

“Now everyone, please open your textbooks to page 97.” He tralled through his sentences like a plow through rocky soil, and it was supremely amusing.

You followed his orders, reading the heading printed across the top of the ruffled page.

“Amortentia.” you read, and then read it again because you were shit at reading and its a confusing word.

“Today,” Snape continued, pacing back and forth across the front of the classroom as he rambled. “We will be attempting to brew ‘Amortentia’, more commonly known as a ‘love potion’. Now, I do not expect you all to get it straight away; It is and advanced option and some of you are somewhat academically…” He paused, making eye contact with a boy at the back, who had his book upside down. “…lacking.”

He continued to list all the needed ingredients as you collected them, and reminded you around a thousand times not to “Take anybodies eyes out by causing an explosion.” Which would, admittedly, be quite funny to watch.

You were sat next to Maple who, as always, took full responsibility for the potion, never having regained trust after you once spilled a concoction of undisclosed ingredients on the bottom of her hair, turning it violently green and forcing her to cut it off.

You watched her as she mixed and chopped and shook ingredients, adding them to the cauldron on the table as she went.

“Stop staring and make yourself useful.” She said, not taking her eyes of the bubbling pot in front of her. “Go grab me a mixing spoon from the back.”

You obeyed, tearing your eyes away from the translucent smoke trailing upwards out of the cauldron and grabbing a wooden mixing spoon from the back. You reached out to grab one from the pot where they lived, but your had collided with another, reaching for the same spoon. You turned round, ready to apologise for accidentally assaulting someone, earn you realised that it was Malfoy.

You swatted his hand away, snatching the spoon and rolling your eyes as you delivered it to Maple, who kept her attention duly trained on the concoction in front of her.

You spent the next thirty minutes sitting next to her, doing nothing as you waited for someone to fuck up and blow up the classroom, but unfortunately for you, they didn’t.

When everyone had finished brewing, Snape paced around the desks, peering into each cauldron before giving its maker a look fitting of their potion, which was mostly disappointment. He walked back to the front, shaking his head.

“When I said that I didn't expect all of you to complete the potion, I at least expected one person to get it right.”

Maple scowled, obviously offended.

“Well maybe,” You leaned over to her, whispering. “if I’d helped, it would've worked.” You sniggered.

She leaned back to you, “You would've poisoned someone.”

“Only if they were particularly annoying.” You nodded towards Malfoy and you both laughed, stopping when Snape glared at you.

“Dismissed.” Snape announced. “I can only take so much disappointment.”

You all filed out of the room, laughing at how sad the professor was that you all turned out to be dumb fucks.

You carried on with you day, flying through DADA and divination, however something clung onto your brain and wouldn't let go. You couldn't let go of the thought that you could've made that potion, successfully. You were sure of it.

You pushed the thought down, ignoring it and paying attention to whatever lesson you were in, until lessons were finished, and you were sat in the Slytherin common room with Maple as she toyed with her wand, levitating a book above her head.

“So you’re allowed to play quiddich again?” She asked.

“Yup.”

“And you’re the seeker now?”

“Yup.”

“You never actually told me how that happened.”

“Well,” You said, preparing to have to deal with a hundred more questions. “Flint, the team captain, thought I was a better play than the actual seeker-“

“Draco.” She interrupted.

“Yeah, even though my broom’s one of those shitty school ones, so he pulled us both aside and said that he was switching out positions on the pitch.”

“But, surely Malfoy didn't just agree?”

“Nah, he was like _‘but her brooms shit and my daddy's rich’_ and all that, so Flint agreed to a deciding match: whoever won got to be the seeker.”

“Oh, and I'm guessing you won, then.”

“Yeah.”

“But,” She continued, putting the book down. “how the fuck did you win on _your_ broom? It’s about as fast and agile as a snail with no legs!”

“Snails don’t _have_ legs.” You chuckled at her—you had to admit, Maple was smart, but she was also really dumb.

“Whatever, you know what I mean.”

“I used one of the fancy Nimbus 2001s that everyone has and it was so fast that I almost fell off in the first five seconds of the game.” You laughed.

“Sounds like you.” She crossed her arms. “And then you won?”

“Yup.” You declared proudly.

“And, so, how, exactly did your arm get hurt?” You never actually told her the details.

“I just pulled a risky move and got hurt, is all.”

“Yeah,” Maple said exasperatedly. “But what _exactly_ did you do?”

“I jumped off my broom to catch the snitch.”

“Oh, that dent sound too ba-“

“From, like, 50 or 60 meters up, and then my wand snapped and I was about to die.”

“What the fUCK!?” Maple jumped up, waving her arms about like a crazy person. “WHAT IF YOU DIED?”

“But I didn’t.” You suppressed your laughter, finding it funny how agitated Maple was getting.

“If you do that again, and you die, I'm gonna kill you.” She flopped back onto the couch, grossing her arms and sulking.

“Fair enough.”

“Wait,” She turned to you, raising an eyebrow. “How come you _didn't_ die?”

You paused, thinking about how Draco literally swooped down to your rescue and saved your life, and how you owed your survival to him, your mortal enemy. “That’s unimportant.” You hurried over the subject.

Maple was about to quiz you further when the distant hum of the bells ringing signalling 10 o’clock sounded.

“Shit, we should be in bed by now.” Maple chuckled as you both headed up the the dorms, jumping into bed so you didn't get detention for breaking curfew.

You said goodnight to each other, blowing out the candle on your bedside and leaving yourself in total darkness. You stared at the ceiling, waiting to fall asleep, but your mind couldn't shut off. Now, without the distraction of lessons, the same thoughts that had clung onto your brain all day resurfaced, beating away any hope of sleep with a baseball bat decorated with nails.

You couldn't help but think that, had you been given the chance, you could've brewed the Amortentia, and you could've done it right.

You waited another half an hour, hoping to the gods that you fell asleep, but you weren't that lucky, besides, you had your pride to protect. Swinging your legs over the bed you grabbed your jumper, putting it on as you slid out of the door. You walked through the common room, the fire still cracking away as it heated up the dorms. You continued through the corridoors, lighting up your way with your wand as you made your way to the potions classroom.

You quietly opened the door, tip-toeing in and clicking it shut again, leaving you alone in the dead-silent classroom. You headed over to a family of candles that were melted to the front desk, lighting them with your wand, filling the room with a warm, welcoming light. You studied the spines of the books on the professors desk, stopping at the one you recognised from earlier. Flicking back to page 97 and re-reading the ingredients for the ‘Amortentia’ potion.

You carried the book to your seat, hoping the familiar set up would win you some confidence that would work in the favour of the potion. Studying the ingredients list, you were about to collect them when you were interrupted by the sound of footsteps outside the door. You froze. If it was Snape, coming back for whatever reason, you'd get a months detention. You were pretty confidently that you're pride wasn't an acceptable excuse for being out of bed past curfew.

The footsteps stopped, thank god, and you were just starting to think that you were safe when the gentle flick of the handle being lifted up echoed though the wooden door, sending a spike of adrenaline through your body. By now you had accepted your fate, and braced for whichever teacher that was about to come in to expelliarmus ur ass right into permanent detention. You watched the door open as the light of the candle leaked though the gap, spilling onto the persons hands as they stepped into the room, quickly shutting the door behind them.

It was Draco.

“Malfoy? What the fuck are you doing here?”

“Shhh!” He whisper-shouted, looking around the room before blowing out the candles, leaving you in pitch darkness.

You stumbled your way over to him, very confused about this whole situation.

“What are you doi-“ You were cut short by his hand grabbing you, covering your mouth as her held stood next to the door.

“I said, shut up.” He whispered.

You were about to protest when you heard the sound of footsteps patrolling the corridors, slowly passing by the door as you waited. You and Draco were frozen in position, him next to the door, listening for footsteps while he held his hand over your mouth, the only two sounds the footsteps disappearing down the halls and Dracos shaky breathing.

After a while, when the footsteps had gone and the danger had passed, Draco let you go, re-lighting the candles with his wand and letting out a deep sigh.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” He asked you, raising his voice to a normal volume.

“I asked you first.”

“I was just out for a walk.”

“You were _‘out for a walk’_?, really?” You crossed your arms, raising an eyebrow at him.

“Yes—now why are _you_ here.”

You thought about it for a second, you'd usually just lie, say that you dropped your wand and came to find it, but you were feeling particularly brave, and decided to face whatever ridicule would come from Malfoy. “I’m making Amortentia.”

He looked as you, confused but somewhat intrigued. “Why?”

“Because,” You said, pulling out a stool and sitting on it as you explained your motives. “I didn't get a chance to try in potions; Maple always does all the work and I’m fairly confident that if I were given the chance, I’d be able to actually do it right.”

“I doubt that.”

“Just because you couldn't do it doesn't mean it impossible, Malfoy,” You stood up, glancing over at the ingredients list. “It just means you’re stupid.”

You walked over to a cabinet at the back of the room, opening it and grabbing a few bottles and jars of labelled ingredients.

“So you’re actually making it? That’s why you're here?” Malfoy seemed sceptical, and slightly bewildered, which was extremely amusing to you.

“Yes.” You replied bluntly as you set the ingredients down on your desk, looking back at the list.

“Well,” Draco said, walking round and pulling up the stool next to yours, where Maple was sat in class. “I have _got_ to see this.” He rested his elbows on the table, watching you as you read.

You ignored him, going back to the cabinet to grab a small pot of powdered magnesium.

“Just try not to blow the whole school up.” He chuckled, obviously doubtful in your potion-brewing abilities.

“No promises.” You mumbled as you walked back to your seat, dead-set on doing this right.

You could see Draco watching you out of the corner of your eye, feeling his gaze fixated on you as he waited patiently for you to fuck up. You ignored him, following the instructions in the book as you added things to the cauldron in front of you: Powdered magnesium, spiced root of somethingorother, some random blue substance that looked suspiciously like crystal meth.

You watched the concoctions in the pot slowly fade into blue, then purple, then green, and then a cloud of white pearlescent fog rose form the bottom, filling the liquid like fog as it covered it in a shimmer that reminded you of the pearls that you'd once seen a woman in Hogsmeade trade for a beer.

You hid your smug smile behind a considerate hum, knowing that it was very possible that you were about to get this right first time. You could see Malfoys smugness drop off his face as he also realised this. You took the last ingredient, a small vile of something black and bitter, and slowly poured it into the pot, grabbing the spoon and storing it gently as you waited. Almost immediately a thick plume of light green-blue smoke spiralled out of the pot, curling and coiling as it dissipated into the warm air. 

You stepped back, reluctant to interfere with what looked like a completed Amortentia potion. You both waited for it to explode, or leak out if the cauldron, or burn a hole through the table, but it didn’t.

“Holy shit I think I did it.” You said to yourself, slightly surprised.

“Theres no way you _actually_ did.” Draco was getting prissy, annoyed that you could do something that he couldn’t.

You peered into the pot: That was definitely the pearly-white potion that Snape had described.

“I did.” You looked at Draco braggingly, crossing your arms and waiting for his protest.

“Fuck off..” He looked into the pot, seeing the same pearly shine as you and realising that you, had, infact, sone something that he couldn’t.

You smiled at him, taunting his ego. He looked back at you, scoffing and crossing his arms as he sat back down.

“Well don't have a tantrum.” You laughed, your pride very much intact.

“Well go on then.” He snapped.

“Go on what?”

“Smell it.” You’d forgotten all about it; how the smell of Amortentia mimics what you find attractive.

You definitely did not want to smell it, even less os tell him what you smelt—what if it was someone really obvious, like a school prefect, or worse, a teacher, he'd never let that go.

“If you're so interested, then you smell it!” You retorted, hoping he would. You definitely wanted to know what he smelt.

“Fine.” He hopped of the stall, leaning over the pot.

After a few seconds he stepped back, looking at the table in thought.

“Well…?” You prompted him.

“Well what?”

“Well; What did it smell like?” You chuckled. “Or more accurately, _who_ did it smell like?”

“None of your business.” He snapped, stepping behind you and pushing you towards the table. “Your turn.”

You hesitantly leant over, once again taking in the pleasant shine of the pearly liquid, writhing like silk beneath the surface. You inhaled through your nose, expecting nothing to happen.

Suddenly, a myriad of intertwined scents flooded into your brain, batting it back and forth as you tried to separate them, doing your best to discern the individual smells.

You could smell something sharp, sour, but with a tinge of sweetness hanging around the edges: apples, green apples, the ones that were cool and sour, and made a satisfying tearing sound when you bit into them. You also smelled the scent of freshly cut grass, dew drops hanging around it in the new morning air. You had recognised these, but the most recognisable scent, the one that overpowered everything else, was the cool tang of peppermint, burning your nose slightly as it entered your brain.

You pulled back, wondering where you'd smelt them before, a strange sense of familiarity and deja-vu washing over you.

Your thought process was interrupted by Draco and his impatience. “Well?”

You looked up at him… and then realised, suddenly feeling a hot blush rise in your cheeks as you tried to act as normal as possible. “None of your business!” You said, stepping back from I'm slightly, hoping that he didn't notice your reaction.

“Aw, c’mon, tell me.” He said, a fake grin pained on his face as he leaned forward, holding his hands behind his back.

“Nope.”

“Pleaseeeee?” He said again, stepping his foot forward.

You grunted, going to walk past him and leave, but as you did your foot caught on his, holding you back as you fell. You held out your hands and closed your eyes, waiting to hit the cold stone floor, but instead you felt a hand grab yours, spinning you round, and another supporting your waist. You opened your eyes, looking up at Draco as he held you, one hand wrapped around your wrist and the other threaded around your waist, pulling your body against his.

You both froze, silence overtaking the room as you stared into his eyes, breathing heavily and slightly shaken. You were glad that you didn't fall, but weren't sure what to feel in this moment. He looked back at you, a slightly panicked expression painted across his face as you realised how tight he was holding you, the pressure around your wrist starting to hurt.

You winced at it, jerking your wrist away slightly.

He let go, looking briefly down at your hand, and then back up at you. “Sorry.” He said, his voice considerably softer than usual.

“It’s ok.” You said back, involuntarily quietly.

You both stayed like that for a moment, Dracos arm wrapped around your back, his fingers clutching the side of your waist and holding you against his body. You could feel the heat radiating off his body and penetrating his clothes, warming you up from the inside out. The only thing you could hear was yours and Dracos breathing, heavy and rushed from the panic. You were so close together that you smell his shampoo: coconut, and the aggressively pepperminty aftershave that hung around him like mist.

Realising how awkward this situation was, you opted to speak. “Uh, we should probably go. Y’know, incase someone comes in.” You paused realising how that sounded. “Like a teacher, and gives us detention.”

“Uh yeah,” Draco said, hesitantly letting you go and stepping back from you, scratching the back of his neck and glancing away. “We probably should.”

“I’m gonna tidy up, but you can, uh, go.”

“Yeah,” Malfoy said, slightly flustered as you saw a hint of pink rising in his cheeks. “I should.”

He walked over to the door, pausing and turning around. “Uh, night.”

“Night.”

Draco opened the door, slipping past it and disappearing into the corridor. You head his footsteps float down the corridor, towards the common room, as you stayed stood in the middle of the potions room, slightly bewildered. You quickly tidied up, pouring some Amortentia into an empty vile and stashing it in your jumper—that might come in handy later. You disposed of the rest, putting back the left over ingredients and replacing the text book where you found it, blowing out the candles.

You left the room, walking down the corridors which were now dully illuminated by the moonlight, painted onto the rough stone walls, lighting up the cobbled floor as you did your best to walk quietly.

You reached the dorm, walking through the fire in the common room and sneaking back into your bedroom, taking your jumper off and stashing the vile underneath your bed. You laid back down, eager to get to sleep and forget what just happened, trying to stop your heart from beating so fast. You closed your eyes, burying your head into the pillow as you forced yourself asleep, hoping that what you'd just experienced meant nothing, and you could continue on with your life as normal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> well that was a phat chapter--I saw all the Amortentia stuff on tik Tok and was like imma steal thatttt
> 
> tell me what you though of this, always looking for constructive criticism xx


	14. Chapter 14

You were sat next to Maple in charms, half listening to professor Flitwick babble and half dozing off. His voice was mainly a constant, droning hum, until you heard the word ‘exam’, which yanked you back to paying attention.

“And thats that, so-“ The professor continued, wrapping up the lesson as you turned to Maple.

“What did he just say about an exam?” You whispered to her.

“Tomorrow we’re being tested on how well we can do some spells.” She whispered back. “But don't worry, they’re the super easy ones.”

“Easy for you to say.” Maple was a straight-A student, completely effortlessly. “Which spells?”

“Oh, only the levitation charm.”

Shit.

You weren't great at charms, but you passes with reasonably good grades, especially considering your hobby of daydreaming in the middle of class. However, no matter how much effort into practicing it, the levitation charm just didn't come naturally to you. You couldn't even make a feather float, which is pretty pathetic.

“You’ll be fine.” Maple reassured you, whimpering quietly as Flitwick talked. “Practice makes perfect.”

You just huffed, knowing full well that there was a very big chance that you would have to show the whole class that you couldn't do one of the simplest charms in the syllabus. Great.

The class was dismissed, and you and Maple walked down the hallway, on the way to the common room; Charms was your last class of the day, and you were planning on going into Hogsmeade for butterbeer and the vibes. You chatted to her absentmindedly as you walked through the common room and up to the dorm to change, but the nagging anxiety of the exam was tugging at your brain, making you feel slightly sick.

“So then Pansy said that _my_ haircut was dumb—which is completely hypocritical if you ask me—and just stormed out!” Maple exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air as she changed into normal clothes.

“Really?” You said, only half interested in whatever drama Maple had gotten herself into this time. “What did you do?”

“I took the high road and walked away.” Maple sat on her bed, waiting for you to finish changing as she sighed. “Anyways, enough about that, hurry up! All the tables’ll be gone by the time you've finished changing!”

You pulled the quiddich jumper over your head and turned to her, swaying out your arms to show her that you were ready.

“You’re wearing that?” She said, grimacing slightly.

“It’s warm”

“It’s got a hole in it.” She pointed out, flicking your arm where the jumper was torn.

You ignored her, going to grab your bag and noticing the charms textbook next to it, remembering the exam as a wave of anxiety washed through your body. You gulped, evaluating your options:

Go to Hogsmeade and try to forget about tomorrow, have a semi-good time with Maple, get back, try to sleep and ignore the burning anxiety, and then embarrass yourself in front of the entire charms class.

Or, go to Hogsmeade another time and practice for tomorrow.

You chose B.

“Hey, Maple?” You siad, doing your best impression of a person who is simply too sick to have a good time with her friend.

“Yuh?”

“I’m really not feeling well; I might skip out on Hogsmeade, just for today.”

“Whats wrong?”

You didn't expect to get this far. “Headache.” Was the first thing that came to your mind, but it worked. “I’d rather just sleep it off.”

“Well I hope you feel better soon.” Maple shot you a genuinely sympathetic smile, tilting her head like a puppy. “Would you mind me abandoning you to go to Hogsmeade? I’m still craving butterbeer.”

“Of course not, go have fun!” You said, dong your best ‘ow my head’ face.”

“Get some rest then, and feel better.” Maple said, bidding you farewell and slipping out of the door as you sat down on the bed.

You sighed, there goes your last chance at going to Hogsmeade. You picked up the charms textbook next to your bag, flicking to the page labelled ‘Levitation Charm’ and scanning it. The incantation was ‘Wingardium Leviosa’, and the hand movement seemed some enough. The simplicity should've been a comfort, but it just made you feel worse about not being able to do it. You were discouraged, yet determined as always, picking up the book and leaving the dorm.

You headed to the library, deciding that books were the easiest thing to practise on, and maybe you could help organise them while you were there. You enter the library the light smell of old pages drifting through the air as the candles along the walls flickered, filling the room with a warm light. The light outside was fading, the candles taking over from the sun as the primary source of light in the library.

You past the rows and rows of books, walking past groups of students with all their studying equipment laid out in front of them as they blatantly didn't study. Looking for a semi-private area to practise, you found a row at the back of the room that was empty, a pile of books dumped in front of the ‘Hexes and Jinxes’ section.

Perfect.

You checked no-one was around before taking out your wand—you didn't want anyone witnessing you miserably failing to make a book float. You took the book off of the top of the pile, the smallest one, and set it on the floor in front of you, sitting cross-legged in front of it. You took a deep breath, readying your wand and concentrating on the book, pushing everything else out of you mind.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” You said, clearly but quietly as you waved your wand, tracing the movement through the air in front of the book.

You tried raising it in the air, but the book stayed stubbornly on the floor, almost taunting you. The spell shouldn't be that hard to make work; you'd completed all the others in charms easily, but it was something about this one that just evaded you at every cost.

You sat up straight, shaking your head and loosening up. You tried again.

“Wingardium Leviosa.”

Nope.

Again. “Wingardium Leviosa”

Nuh-uh.

“Wingardium Leviosa”

Nah.

This continued on as the sun outside went down, leaving the windows as black glass, reflecting the dancing flames of the candles that now lit up the room. The gentle buzz of whispering had died down as the students eventually left, taking their text books and pens and leaving, having studied for a total of about three seconds.

You were left sat on the ground, in front of the same stubborn book, glaring back at it as you took a breather.

Suddenly, the warm candle light was snatched away, blown out by one of the professors, and you heard the deep clank of the door being pulled shut, and locked. You sat in the dark, frowning as you realised that you were locked in here. Shit.

You carefully got up, graciously leaving the company of the book on the floor.

“Lumos.” You said, a bright white light forming at the end of your light and throwing shadows across the room.

You cautiously walked around the entire library, looking down the rows of books, until you concluded that you had indeed been locked in. Great.

You turned round, about to go and light a candle when you heard a shuffling noise behind you, and the thud of a book hitting the floor. Instantly, a spike of fear hit you, despite it probably being an elf. As always, your imagination took over; maybe it was a monster? Troll? No, too big. Dragon? Too loud. Dementor, maybe? It was probably a dementor.

And, in that split second, your brain had decided that there was a dementor in the library, and you were about to die.

You sound back around, staring at the dimly-lit bookshelf in from of you as you searched the dark. Nothing.

You calmed down a little; maybe it was just nothing, and you were being crazy. You were just starting to think that you were ok, when you head footsteps again, walking your way. You were scared, to say the least, and you gulped, fully ready to throw a ouch at whatever was walking towards you.

The footsteps were coming at you from behind, only about a meter away, and your fight or flight kicked in. You swung around, throwing your fist into the dark space where the footsteps were. You hit something, throwing it back as you jumped back.

Holding up your wand you prepared to see a horrific monster, writhing on the floor as it prepared to kill you, but you didn't.

“What the fuck!” Malfoy sneered, glaring up at you as he laid on the floor.

“Shit, sorry.” Was all you could offer without bursting into laughter at the sight of Draco having been punched.

“Why’d you fucking punch me!?” He sat up, touching his face to check if it was still intact.

“I thought you were a dementor.”

“A dementor?”

“Yuh.”

“You’re so fucking stupid.” He spat, standing up. “Can you light a candle or something in here? So you don’t fucking punch me again.”

You chuckled, putting out the light on your wand and using it to light one of the candles on a desk near you, the flame slowly filling the room with a warm light.

You turned back to Draco, seeing a trail of blood run out of his nose and over his lips, dripping of his bottom lip and onto his chin.

“Shit, your nose.” You said, looking around for a tissue.

Draco did the same, holding a hand under his face as a small pool of blood collected. Unfortunately for you, there were no tissues. You quickly took off your jumper, balling it up and handing it to Draco. He snatched it from you, mopping up his face and scoffing.

He pulled out a chair from a small dest behind him, sitting down as you watched him, grinning.

“What’s so funny?” He said, his voice muffled by the jumper.

“You, getting punched in the face.” You smiled, chuckling slightly.

He stayed quiet, looking away and scoffing as he held your now blood-stained jumper to his face. After a moment, he took it away, his nose not bleeding for a second. He sighed, another drop of blood falling down his porcelain skin and onto his shirt.

“Your nose.” You said.

He just looked at you, slightly confused as he raised an eyebrow.

Exasperated, you grabbed the jumper form his lap, folding over the sleeve and holding it to his face. You grabbed his hand, holding it on the jumper. You lingered for a second, holding your hand over his, his hand making yours look tiny in comparison. Draco met your eyes, for once not glaring at you as you heard his breathing hitch in his throat. You looked back at him, his grey eyed riding you of the glimmer of the moon on a clear night.

Realising that you were staring, you took your hadn't away, deeming him perfectly capable of holding a jumper by himself.

You cleared you throat, leaning on the small table in front of Draco.

“So, _why_ exactly are you in here?” You asked, ignoring the tension in the room.

“I could ask you the same thing.” He said back to you, raising an eyebrow.

You crossed your arms, cocking your head and shooting him a look that said ‘don’t be difficult.’.

“I was just looking for a book and I guess I didn't realise how late it was getting. What about you?”

You were debating whether or not to lie, maybe telling him wouldn't be so bad. “I was practising a charm for an exam-thingy I have tomorrow.”

“Oh, which charm?”

“The levitating one, wingardium leviosa, I think?” You said, as if the hours and hours of you saying it over and over and over hadn't cemented the words into your brain.

“And you still can’t do it?” Malfoy smirked, and you regretted telling him the truth.

“Not really.” You muttered, preparing for the insults.

“Jesus, how dumb are you? So you really can't do it?”

You shook your head, sighing annoyedly.

Malfoy stood up, dropping your jumper onto the table and checking that his nose was ok, before grabbing a book form one of the shelves and balancing it on his hand.

You knew what he was trying to get you to do, and you did _not_ want to do it.

“Go on then.” He said, a wide smile painted across his face, his red, bloodstained lips decorating his white teeth, blood painted over some of them.

You sighed standing your ground.

“Aw, c’mon; don’t be a killjoy.”

You realised that he wasn't going to stop pestering you until you didn't it. Reluctantly you took out your wand, pointing it at the book.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” You said half-heartedly, swinging your wand, and as usual, nothing happened.

Draco laughed, raising his eyebrows as he returned the book to where he'd got it from. “So you really can’t do it, huh?”

“What do you think?” You returned sarcastically.

Draco chucked again, leaning back on the table behind him and crossing his arms. “Do it again.”

“What?”

“The spell; I wanna see how you're fucking up.”

Rude.

You sighed, holding out your wand. “Wingardium Leviosa.” You said, swishing your wand around as you glared at Malfoy.

“Well there’s your problem.” He said, pushing off from the table and standing next to you.

“What?” You turned to him, crossing your arms.

“You’re doing it wrong.” He smirked, his fingers brushing yours as he took your wand. “You’re doing this…” He copied your movements slowly, tracing them through the air. “And not this.” He waved the wand, mimicking what you did but back wards.

You felt kind of stupid, but you didn't show it, raising an eyebrow as you looked at him skeptically.

You snatched the wand back and Draco picked the book back up, balancing it in the palm of his hand as he faced you.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” You did your best to recreate what he did, but evidently you fucked up, because the book stayed stationary on his hand.

Before you could get a word in, Draco chimed in. “You did it wrong again.” He sung, putting the book down on the table and stepping behind you.

“What am I meant to do-“ You started, but were interrupted by Dracos body touching yours.

He stood behind you, reaching out and snaking his hand over yours, his fingers coiling round and gripping yours, pressing them against the smooth wood of your wand. Your breath hitched as you felt his chest press again his back, his breath brushing your neck as he stepped forward. Luckily for you he couldn't see the blush bloom across your face as you felt the warmth from his body penetrate your shirt. You let out a shaky breath as you waited for something to happen, and take away from the adrenal storm booming in your chest.

“Here.” Draco said, his voice soft and deep next to your ear.

He waved your hand, copying the motion he'd shown you before, slowly. You watched your hand being engulfed by his as it washed through the air carefully.

“Got it?” You felt the vibrations of his voice in your jaw, the reverb sending a spike of adrenaline down your throat.

“Yeah.” You said, your voice embarrassingly soft.

Draco took his hand off yours, resting it on your upper arm as he curled his fingers around you. He prompted you to do it again, and you did, doing your best to keep your attention on the magic, not the boy.

“Now say it.” Draco pointed your hand at the book.

“Wingardium Leviosa.” you said, clearing your throat and annunciating.

And just like that, the book was raised above the tabletop, hovering a foot above as it cast a flickering shadow onto the mahogany.

You heard a suppressed chuckle from behind you, feeling the hum of Dracos voice in his chest as it was pressed against your back, and you dropped the book, a confident thud sounding through the library.

Draco let go of you, stepping away. You turned round, watching him pick up your jumper and turn back, not noticing that you were facing him. He almost bumped into you, stopping only a few inches away form your body as he looked down to you. You looked back up, feeling the fabric of your jumper brush your hands as you listened to the slightly shaken breathing the filled the room. You both froze, staring at each other as you stood, your body heat clashing together from the proximity.

“Um,” He finally said. “Heres your jumper.” He handed it you you, not breaking eye contact.

You took it, your fingers brushing his as you clutched the fabric. “Thanks.” You replied, equally softly.

“Sorry about the blood.”

“Sorry about punching you.”

Draco laughed, dimples appearing on his pale cheeks as he smirked. You did too, watching the reflection of the candle dance in his pale-grey eyes.

You heard footsteps approaching the library, stopping before the door and unlocking it, the heavy clunk of the lock echoing around the walls. You and Draco both looked over to the door, hesitantly breaking eye contact as you watched for someone to come in.

Professor McGonagal flung open the door, and marched down the aisle, standing in front of the pair of you.

“Oh my!” She started, clapping her hands together. “I’m terribly sorry for locking you in, i just didn't think there was anyone left in the library.”

“It’s ok Professor.” You chuckled, scratching the back of your neck.

“Well then, let’s get you two off to bed.” She said, ushering you and Draco out of the library and down the hall, escorting you to the common room.

“Now, off to bed you two!” She called at you as she disappeared down the hall, leaving you and Draco standing in front of the flickering fire in the Slytherin common room.

The air was slightly tense, the only sound the gentle crackle of the fire.

“Well,” Draco said, turning to you. “Good luck on that exam tomorrow.” His politeness made it 100 times more awkward, and you could see that he realised that, weighing up his options before adding in: “Try not to fuck it up too bad.”

“I think I’ve got it dickhead.” You said sarcastically, repressing the small smile that threatened to show.

Draco scoffed, shaking his head as he walked off in the direction of the boys dorms. “Night.” He called out, exasperatedly.

“Ditto.” You returned, heading up to bed.

You dumped the blood stained jumper on your bed, throwing yourself down next to it. The faint scent of peppermint hung around it, clashing with the sharp, corrosive tang of blood. You chucked it on the floor, rolling over and burritoing yourself with the covers, not being assed to change into your pyjamas.

You sighed, the warmth in your cheeks slowly dying down as you closed your eyes, the feeling of Dracos hand on yours still lingering in your brain as you went to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> owo


	15. Chapter 15

“Well fuck me,” Maple exclaimed as she walked with you down the hall, away from the charms classroom. “You actually did it!”

“You sound so surprised.”

“Yeah, because you're shit at charms.”

You turned to her, gasping in false offence. “How dare you!”

“Just being honest.”

“Anyways,” You said. “Moving past the fact that I just totally bossed that charms exam,” Maple rolled her eyes at you. “I’m craving butterbeer.”

“Hogsmeade?” she sung expectantly.

“Hogsmeade.” You confirmed, walking with Maple to the Slytherin common room to drop your books off.

As soon as you walked in the common room a familiar voice rose in the air, almost enticing you in as you did your best to avoid its owner. You were nearly successful in this, until you heard you name called, and turned round to answer it.

“Yes, Malfoy?”

Draco stood up form the sofa where he was sitting, leaving his henchmen, Crabbe and Goyle, behind him as he approached you. You gave your books to Maple, asking her to drop them off in your room while you did your best to hold a conversation with the blond twat in front of you.

“So,” He said, smirking as he crossed his arms, looking down on you through thick eyelashes. “How’d it go?”

“How’d what go?” You raised an eyebrow.

“The exam, dumbass.”

“Oh, right.” You said, a quiet pride emerging as you remembered the surprise on the professors face when you actually did the spell. “Yeah, I did it.” You suppressed the smile that dared to show itself, attempting to keep the edgy, unbothered facade that you didn't have.

Malfoy smiled, looking you up and down briefly. “I’d love to say that I'm surprised, but you had an excellent teacher.”

“Or i’m just an excellent student.” You retorted, not wanting to give Malfoy any credit, despite it being his ‘lesson’ that ultimately helped you.

“Oi!” You heard Maple call as she bounded up to you, hooking her arm round yours and yanking you away from your conversation. “C’mon, I'm thirstyyyyyy.”

“Alright, needy.” You jested at her, earning back an exaggerated pout.

“And where are you being dragged?” Malfoy interjected.

“Hogsmeade.”

“Well remember; stranger danger.” Were your parting words, before you were dragged off down the corridor.

It was a relatively warm day, and it only took you around quarter of an hour to make your way to Hogsmeade, and about twice that to find a table in The Three Broomsticks. Eventually, you found yourself seated in the cosy sofa that was backed into a career at the back of the bar, your hands wrapped around a mug of Butterbeer as you listened to Maple gossip about the general population of the school, on e of her favourite hobbies. She was just reaching the subject of Professor McGonagal when your attention was snatched away from you, the group of boys walking in suddenly seeming far more interesting than whatever your friend was jittering on about.

Its was some of the Slytherin boys, waltzing in with all the confidence of a perfectly average white man. Draco, followed by his usual entourage of dumb and dumber, as well as a few other faces that you recognised from around the school. Half of the group broke off to order, the other half—lead by Draco—spotted you and Maple, and came over to annoy you.

“This seat taken?” Draco said, pointing to the space on the couch next to you.

“I have a feeling that you'll sit down no matter what I say.” You said, as he sat down.

You glanced over to Maple, rolling your eyes, and catching a glimpse of the boy next to her. You’d seen him around, marching down corridors and such. Blaise Zabini. He was attractive, enough to make you follow him as you passed him in the halls, but not enough for him to stay on your mind. If he wasn't in view, you pretty much forgot about his existence, except for now as you made eye contact with him, and he flashed you a smile. You returned the courtesy, turning back to Draco as you watched him down the last of your butter beer.

“Hey!” You said, snatching the empty cup from him and scowling.

“Hey what?” He said, acting like he didn't know what you were on about.

“My drink.” You muttered under your breath, crossing your arms in protest.

“Hey Draco! Blaise! C’mon!” The other boys called out from across the floor, holding a tower of mugs and plates that they piled onto a table as they sneered at the group of Hufflepuffs sat there, successfully scaring them away.

Draco got up, followed by Blaise. “Thanks for the free drink.” He called back to you as he walked over to his group.

Blaise hung back as Malfoy went, reaching into his pocket and producing a couple of silver coins. He turned back to you, leaning over the table and putting them in front of you. “For the beer.” He said, his voice low and smooth as he smiled at you, winking before he turned back and joined the rest of the boys at the table. You watched him as he walked away, processing the fact that he’d just so clearly hit on you. You watched him take his seat and your eyes flicked over to Draco as you watched him scowl with a burning intensity at Blaise, flooring him with his eyes as he obviously avoided Malfoy. Draco quickly flicked his eyes back to you, but you turned away, speaking to Maple.

“Well that was strange.” You said, still a little suspicious.

“Yeah,” Maple agreed. “Am I crazy or did that dude just wink at you?”

“Yeah, he did. Weird.”

“Weird? I think you mean fucking hot.” Maple exclaimed, obviously enchanted by this new boy. You laughed at her enthusiasm. “I mean, C’mon,” She continued. “He is beautiful.”

You agreed with her, looking at the money on the table in front of you, before pocketing it. “Well, since Malfoy finished my drink for me I think we should head back.” You glanced back to the group as you took the coins, making eye contact with Blaise as he smiled at you, lingering on you for a second too long before turning back to whatever dumb conversation was happening.

You ignored it, following Maple as she scootched out of the booth, making her way out of the pub. As you passed the table of boys the conversation halted for a second, and you could feel the pressure of eyes on the back of your head. You took this as a not-so-good sign that they were talking about you, and did your best to ignore it.

As you exited the pub you realised just how dark it had gotten, the bright, warm light inside serving as a jarring contrast to the cold, muted light of the setting sun. You and Maple started walking back the way you came when you heardthe sound of hurried footsteps coming up behind you fast. You tuned round to see Malfoy, standing in front of you, the air around him practically buzzing with irritation.

“Can I talk to you?” He said, his usual light, mocking tone having been replaced for a more serios, slightly worrying one.

“Uh, sure?” You said, hesitantly.

Malfoy looked at Maple, raising his eyebrows at her. “Oh, right,” She said. “Well, see ya back at the common room, I guess.” She continued walking back down the path, leaving you and Malfoy stood facing each other in the street.

“What do you want, Malfoy?”

“Look, I know he may seem charming and cute, but just,” He glanced away, exhaling deeply, his nostrils flaring in bother. “Don’t.”

“Don’t?” You were lost, and taken aback by Malfoy sudden change in vibe.

“Don’t.” He repeated firmly.

“And, what not?”

“Because,” He said, struggling to find a plausible reason for him being in such a strop. “Just because.”

“Just because,” You mocked him, crossing your and and matching his pose. “ _How convincing_.”

Draco looked down at you, his eyebrows furrowed as he exhaled violently, his shoulders tense. He seemed very different form his usual self, defensive more than usual.

“Ok, fine.” You conceited, throwing your arms up dramatically as you walked away from him, “I won’t.” You turned away from him, heading back and hoping to catch up with Maple on the way.

You saw Maple a few meters ahead of you, jogging forward and catching up with her.

“What was that about?” She asked, a small smirk already creeping across her face.

“Malfoy was being weird.”

“Weird?”

“Yeah,” You thought about his voice, how it had snapped from his usual annoying, up-tight whining to a firm almost-commanding tone. “Weird.”

“How so?”

“He was just like. ‘Stay away from Blaise’,” You mocked his voice. “ And then I asked him why and he was just like ‘Because’.”

“Because?”

“Just because.”

Maple smiled suspiciously, scrunching her nose at you as she stared at you.

“What?”

“Somebodies jealousss!” She sung, skipping beside you as her hair bounced in the wind.

“What? Who?”

“Malfoy you dumbass!” She shrieked.

You chuckled at the absurdity of the statement. “And why the fuck would that dickhead be jealous?”

Maple laughed under her breath, turning away from you.

“Well?” You pestered her.

“I have absolutely no clue.” She said, unconvincingly.

“Ok, well you can piss off, and so can Malfoy.” You smiled sarcastically at her, trying to ignore what she just said.

You left the topic of Malfoy behind you as you chatted all the way to the castle, all the while the thought of him nagging at the back of your head. Why would he be jealous of Blaise? Because he gave you money? Did Draco wanna be your sugar daddy? You chuckled at the thought, leaving it to rest as you trundled into the Common room, following Maple up to the bedroom.

You spent the next hour or so sat on your beds and gossiping about members of staff, Maples favourite thing to do when she was procrastinating studying, and your favourite thing to do while ignoring all your problems.


	16. 16

His cheeks were crimson and bathed in sweat, which stuck his hair to his face, the odd white strand blowing away from his face as he breathed. His nose was bloody from Blaizes hit, and you watched as a trail of dark red snaked down, running over his lips and dripping off his chin onto his trousers as it intertwined with the sweat, producing a metallic peppermint which wafted over him. 

He held your gaze for a second, just catching his breath, before chuckling dipping his head and smiling. The blood slicked over his teeth as he smirked, trailing off his lips and bloodying the white of his teeth as it washed over them. He raised his sleeve to his face, wiping away a trail of red spit from his cheek and examining it, bringing his hand to his nose and touching it. He broke eye contact, glancing down at the blood that covered his fingers and chuckling slightly, licking it off before carefully standing up. 

He was slightly hunched, leaning on his thigh for support as he groaned, the soreness in his body evident as he took about a milenia to actually stand up. 

He looked back at you, now with his height restored, and you saw the smile fade from his face, replaced with an expression that you couldn't quite pinpoint; one that you’d never seen in his face before.

“You look like shit.” Was your compassionate response as you smiled at him, raising an eyebrow at the blood that decorated his face.

“I feel like shit.” He returned, not taking his eyes off you. 

He was still breathing heavily, his wide soldiers rising and falling with every heave of his chest. You watched as blood dripped off his chin and onto his front, soaking into his white shirt. 

You paused before speaking again. “And what was all that about?” You asked him, genuinely curious as to why he just boxed one of his friends in the center of the Slytherin common room. 

“None of your business.” He breathed, his voice corse and low, a product of the exertion.

You paused for a second, as the scent of peppermint and sweat caught you off guard, the tang of metal sharpening it. “You should go to the nurse.” You said, hoping that he would take your advice.

“I’ll get in trouble.” 

“I’m sure daddy can fix it for you.” You joked, earning a suppressed chuckle.

“Fine, but you’re coming with me; I can’t be bothered to explain the situation.” He walked past you, his arm brushing against yours as he headed out of the common room.

You followed him, walking down the dimly lit hallways in silence as you listened to the raspy hum of Dracos breathing.    
You got to the nurses office, opening the doors as you braced for the nurse to charge you. 

“What's wrong with you then?” She said to you, condescendingly.

“Um,” You stuttered, wondering if she genuinely had visual problems or just an IQ of -3. “Not me; him.” You turned to Malfoy as he rolled his eyes.

“Oh, gracious me!” She immediately snapped into action, dragging draco to a bed and rushing over to a cabinet, scooping the contents of one of the shelves into her arms and chucking it onto the table next to him and scrabbling through the supplies, grabbing a cloth. She snapped round to you, shooting you a death glare and waving you away.

“Out, shoo.” 

You glanced over at Draco as you scurried out of the nurses office, the heavy double doors shutting themselves behind you. You didn't want to wait until you were alowed to go back in, but you also didn't want to leave and relinquish your opportunity to be nosey, so you compromised and waited.

You had been sat outside the door for about 45 minutes, when the the doors swung open and the nurse poked her head out, scanning around the hall before fixing her gaze on you. “Ah, I had a feeling you were still here.” She said, nodding her head. “Your boyfriends all fixed up.”

“He’s not my-” You started, but she’d ducked back behind the doors.

You stood up, brushing down your skirt and following her inside. You saw Malfoy, sat hunched on the edge of the bed, his elbows resting on his knees as his head hung down, his hair messier than usual. 

“Your girlfriends here.” She said as she passed Draco, collecting the pile of bits and bobs from the table next to him. 

“She’s not my-”

“I’ve got to go and talk to Professor Slughorn, I’ll leave you two here.” She said, heading towards the door before stalling and turning round. “Behave.” She scolded, before swinging open the doors and vanishing. 

You turned to Draco, his head still bowed with his hair covering it. “Hey,” You said, resting a finger under his chin and lifting his head so you could see his face. “You still look like shit.” You smiled at him.

He laughed, his cheeks were still red, and you could see a bruise forming on one of his cheekbones, the reddish-purple haze cradling his eye socket. The bridge of his nose was red, and had a bandage running over it. 

“Yeah.” Was his response as he gazed up at you, his pale skin decorated with various injuries and lacerations. 

You turned your attention to his hair which was, instead of its usual neat and styled look, was messed up into a scraggle, sticking out in an unusually fluffy manner. It reminded you of a golden retriever, just sweatier.

“What?” Draco said, watching you judge his hair.

You looked back down to him, realising your hand was still on his chin and dropping it. “Nice hair.” You said, sarcastically.

Draco just sighed, leaning back on his palms. “I don’t wanna know.”

“Fair enough.” You said, processing your current situation and giving it some thought. “Hey, Malfoy?” You said, sitting down on the bed next to him as you turned to face each other.

“What?”

“What was that about?”

“What was  _ what  _ about?”

“The civil war.” You said bluntly. “You know  _ what _ .”

“Nothing.” He said, frowning slightly as he looked away from you.

“No, seriously, what was it about?”

“Nothing. All that happened was me and Blaize got into a fight over nothing and he fucked my nose and messed up my hair and now I look like a drifter.” He spat Blaizes name out like it was rotten, lacing each letter with wire as he cut through it. 

You stood up, looking through the drawers in the table next to the bed. Draco just watched as you searched, no doubtedly questioning what you were doing. You found a comb, shutting the drawer and holding it in the air. 

“You tell me what  _ actually _ happened, and I’ll fix your hair.” 

Draco huffed, scooting forward on the bed. “Fine.”

Pleased, you stepped forward, first ruffling his tangles out before starting to brush his hair. “C’mon, tell me.” You said as you did your best to brush his hair out straight.

Draco sighed, and you saw him shut his eyes from behind his fringe, bracing for something. ‘ _ Oh god _ ’ you thought, ‘ _ it must’ve been bad _ ’.

“It was about you.” He blurted out somewhat hurriedly.

“Me?” You chuckled, covering up your surprise. “How so?”

“Well- ouch!” He gasped as you brushed out a knot.

You hummed apologetically before gesturing for him to continue talking.

“Well,” He continued. “You remember back in Hogsmeade, when you and that ginger-”

“Maple.”

“Yeah, her, were there?”

“I do.”

“And when he gave you the money for the beer.”

“Because you drank it.”

You heard him scoff, smiling slightly at the offence that he took to that. “Sure.” He paused, taking a breath. “Well when he came and sat down he asked about you…” He trailed off, exhaling as he scratched his face.

“What about me?” You asked.

“Just, like, stuff--generic stuff, and he wouldn’t shut up, and it was just irritating.”

You paused, looking down at him. “He was irritating?”

He looked back up at you. “Yeah.”

“So you decided to scrap him in the middle of the common room?”

“Yeah.”

You let out a breathy chuckle, yet again taken aback by his sheer confidence that he’s always in the right.

You leant down so you were eye-to-eye with Draco, brushing down the hair around his face as you made it as neat as possible, getting far to invested in the state of his mop than you should’ve been. You could see his eyes following yours, but you kept you attention trained on his hair, ignoring him. 

“What do you mean by generic questions? Like my shoe size, or what?” You asked, not showing how intrigued by the drama that had just arisen.

“I dunno, I can’t remember.” He said, unconvincingly.

You looked him in the eye, raising an eyebrow and shooting him a ‘i don’t believe you look’.

“Fine,” You said, standing up. “Well, your hair looks less… like it did.”

“Thanks.” 

You looked up, realising that the windows were dark and the low buzz of crowds drifting down the hallways were since softened to a rigging silence. 

“We should go, or well get in trouble for being out past curfew.” Draco said, standing up.”

“And who’s fault is that?” 

He huffed, walking past you as you caught a glimpse of a smile. You walked with each other in silence the whole way to the common room, which would have been awkward if it were anyone else, but the long-boiling rivalry between the two of you softened the air, making it almost familiar. 

When you got to the common room, you both went up to your respective bedrooms, not feeling the need to bid each other goodnight, for fear of being too nice.

“And where have you been?” Maple said as you walked through the door.

“I’ll explain tomorrow, it’s complicated.” You said, getting into your pajamas and getting into bed.

“Fine.” Maple huffed, “Night.”

“Night.” You sung back to her, blowing out the candle on your bedside table. 

Well that was fuckin weird.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooo babeyyyyyy


	17. 17

It was Saturday, and you and Maple were sat in the common room, holding books open while ignoring their contents and instead gossiping about yesterdays events.

"Wait," Maple said, leaning forward. "So, that's why there was a fight?"

"Yup." You confirmed. "Pretty dumb, huh?"

"Yeah.." Maple trailed off, looking as if she was thinking hard about something.

"What?" You asked, curious.

"Nothing, it's just weird how Draco was so vague. Like he's got something to hide."

"I didn't think about that, I suppose you're right."

You both sat for a second, pondering what secrets the great Draco Malfoy could possible wasn't to keep hidden, and why he wouldn't want you to know.

Maple spoke up. "So, Malfoy absolutely would _not_ go into detail about the fight?"

You shook your head.

"Well," She continued, a devilish gleam in her eye as she slammed her book closed, leaning forward. "I'm too nosey to not get an answer. So let's go ask Blaise."

"Blaise?"

"Yeah, he was just as much a part of that fight as Malfoy, and why would he wasn't to keep it a secret?"

"Really? But don't you think we should just leave it alone? It isn't really any of our business." You were skeptical about talking to Blaise, especially after what Draco had said in Hogsmeade, not to mention the situation at hand.

"Didn't he say that the fight was about you?"

"Oh yeah," You remembered that Draco had said that Blaise was asking too many questions about you. "Guess it is my business."

"Great, c'mon." Maple sprung up, her book falling onto the floor as she waltzed out of the common room. You set yours down and followed her, not quite sure where she was going.

"Where are you going?" You asked.

"Well, usually he hangs out by the library on weekends with his little group of friends, so were gonna check if he's there."

"How do you know his schedule?" You chuckled.

Maple turned to you, tapping her nose before continuing on her way to the library. Sometimes her omnipotence was helpful.

You got to the library and immediately Maple started peering round corners and down walkways. "There." She said, grabbing your hand and dragging you to a corner of the library, just underneath the 'Herbology' section.

"Blaize Zabini." Maple said, leaning on the bookshelf next to him, where he was closely inspecting the spines of some dusty books.

"Ginger." He returned, not looking up.

"How's your face?" You asked.

He looked up, meeting your eye. "Oh, it's you."

"Me?"

"Yeah, from the pub." He smiled sweetly at you, but the spark of interest that you'd seen when you first met was seemingly absent.

"And the fight, apparently." Maple chimed in.

He huffed turning back to the books, obviously severely uninterested in any contribution Maple had to the conversation. You shot her a look of 'I got this', and she nodded her head, silently leaving as you turned back to the boy in front of you.

"Hey, Blaize?" You said, once again grabbing his attention.

"What can I do ya for?" He answered playfully.

"What was that fight about?" You asked bluntly, hoping that being direct would be the best bet in getting him to sneer your question.

Blaize didn't get nearly as defensive as you were expecting—not like Malfoy—and instead he turned around, leaning his back on the bookshelf and crossing his arms. "You."

"Care to elaborate?"

He chuckled, looking down to his shoes and then back up to you. "I'm not supposed to say."

He paused, and you were about to speak, when he interrupted you. "But, Draco would hate if you knew, so I'm gonna tell you."

You smiled.

"Basically," He said, crossing one leg over the other. "It started when we saw you and that Ginger in Hogsmeade, and Draco decided that he wanted to go and annoy you, and when he took your drink I felt bad—actually, I don't think i've ever heard him talk about why you've got this..." He paused, choosing his words. "...Rivalry. Why is that?"

You thought for a second, considering his question. "Honestly, I can't remember."

Blaize found it funny, chuckling. "Well, anyway, I felt bad," He lowered his voice a little. "And thought you were cute," He looked away, blushing a little. "So I gave you the money for it. Simple."

"Ok," You said, consciously brushing over the fact that Blaize said you were cute, totally not internally screaming. "But then why did you get into your little bitch fight?"

"Malfoy didn't like that I hit on you."

You weren't quite sure how to process this piece of information, or how you should take it. "What?"

"Yeah, when I sat down he shot me a weird look, and then he just said something like, 'Back off.' " Blaise mocked Malfoy voice.

"Thats weird."

"Yeah," Blaise agreed, tilting his head. "He was totally jealous."

"Jealous?"

"Well at least thats what he seemed, but I dunno." Blaise turned around, going back to inspecting books on the shelf.

You took this as your cue to leave, bidding him goodbye and thanking him for the conversation. You decided to head back to the common room, to tell Maple what you'd just learnt, even of it did seem untrue. _Jealous? Malfoy? What would he be jealous?_ It just didn't make sense.

You were just walking down the hallway, letting your mind wander, when you were pulled form your thoughts by a bright white light drifting int your vision. You looked up, and saw it, about the size of a tennis ball, floating eye level about a meter in front of you; a white orb emitting a dull light. Confused you paused, not sure how to feel about it. You looked around at the students around you, but no-one else seemed to notice . The odd person would walk almost through it and not bat an eye.

It stayed still for a moment, almost as if it was trying to catch ur attention, before continuing down the corridor. You debated for a second whether or not to follow it, but as usual a ur curious nature got the best of you and you did.  
You didn't pay attention to where you were waking, in that it was behind the light as it drifted through mid air, leading you to god knows where.

You probably should've been scared, or at the least bit nervous, but you weren't—it was getting boring at Hogwarts anyway, why not spice things up a little.

You followed it out into the grounds, just behind to the castle. From here, you could see a small brick hut, which you understood to belong to one of the staff here: a giant named Hagrid, that lolloped around the castle every so often, clutching clipping of some obscure plant.

The orb started towards the hut, or what you thought was towards the hut. You were skeptical about following it further, but you couldn't see anyone around at that moment, so it must be safe, and you wouldn't get caught, right?

You continued to trail behind it, heading towards the small cabin as you wondered why you were supposedly summoned there, and what Hagrid wanted some random student for. You were going through a tick list of questions, when you got to the steps, the orb floating down to, and past, Hagrids hut.

Then, you realised.

The forbidden Forrest.

You stopped, looking into the walk of trees that stood clustered in front of you, the dense Forrest casting a foggy shadow onto the floor.

The orb stopped with you, almost waiting for you; egging you on to make a decision.

Are you in, or out? Choose.

You looked back toward the castle. You could go back now, and technically you wouldn't have broken any rules, and you wouldn't be in trouble, or danger.

Nah, Fuck it.

You took a breath, stepping forward towards the Forrest on the exhale, the orb continuing on its way as you trailed behind.   
As you reached the line of trees that guarded the groggy air inside the Forrest you paused for a second, stopping to listen.

It sounded completely different from the rest of the grounds, a growling silence rolling over the leaves on the trees as they fluttered, the air completely still. It seemed misty, or maybe that was just the dull stench of rot drifting up from the barren ground, the broken up beaches half submerged in the dirt.

 _Well, at least it'll be an adventure_ , you thought, taking your first step into the forrest.


	18. 18

The light that peaked through the sparse foliage above you seemed grey, like it had been shone through a misted glass.

You did your best to stay quiet; there was no good reason for this, only a deep grumble of dread that coated your guts, settling at the bottom of your stomach as you glanced around every few moments. Every direction looked the same, save for the way you came. You glanced back, the light of the castle slowly fading as you strayed further and further away from your guaranteed safety, prioritising adventure over security, which—at the time—seemed like a good idea.

The orb lit up the path, it's cool white light throwing shadows over the tree trunks, which ducked and dodged as you passed them. It all looked the same: tree after tree after tree, branch after stick after stone as you weaved through the woods, haphazardly looking around as you hoped that you didn't catch a glimpse of some half-formed creature lurking behind you, crouched and waiting.

It continued like this for a long moment; the orb staying at the same jittering pace. At this point, you wondered if you were just hallucinating, if someone had slipped something into your drink and had made you go crazy.   
You glanced back again, yet instead of seeing the castle faded in the distance, all you saw was what was around you: the looming beaches that hung from tree trunks, pointing to you as you looked back at them.   
Suddenly, that balanced of security was lifted, dumped in a swamp and slathered back on you, soaking you in an anxious dream, that dropped off your fingertips as they tucked themselves into each other, doing their best to hide.

The orb was your only option now, your only real source of light, so you had no choice but to follow it; and you did until you couldn't.

The orb halted, hovering in mid air as you stopped with it. You waited for it to move again, but it didn't. You looked around, realising that you were stood in a small clearing, the ground clear of trees in a neat circle around you. Weird. You looked around the edge of the circle, along the ground, and saw the ground was clear of debris in a few spots. You walked over to one, peering down at the short tree stump that looked back up at you.   
You realised that someone had made this place, a designated circle for something or other.

The the panic began to set in, and you realise what you'd gotten yourself into. A random circle in the woods was prime territory for a cheeky little human sacrifice, and a floating orb that lead you there? You were definitely in danger.

But who wanted you out here, so far away from the safety of the castle. For a second you considered the idea that it may have been Malfoy, playing a stupid trick in you, but you doubted that he'd ever have the guts to go out in the forbidden Forrest: he was as much a coward as a cunt, so that ruled him out.

There was a crack behind you, a snapping twig. You froze. _What the fuck._ Someone was there with you, or maybe something. You would've been comforted by the fact that it was probably an animal, of it weren't for the fact that any "animal" that lived in the forbidden forest was there for a reason.

A crackle sounded from behind you; the crunch of leaves under a boot.

It was someone.

Another crackle, this time moving to the right. They were slowing pacing around behind you, from the sounds of it just outside the circle.   
You couldn't turn around, so frozen in fear that you couldn't even run. So you waited; waited for the big reveal: who was gonna kill ya?!

Crunch crackle crunch, the footsteps rounded your side, a figure appearing in the corner of your vision, slowly drifting into view.

"Hello darling." They said, a strand of frizzy black hair being blown away from their mouth as they spoke, hitting their pale lips as they carved out a smile.

"Mum?" You looked up at her, taking in her scraggly figure as she stood in front of you, the light of the orb splattering colour onto her pale cheeks.

Bellatrix LeStrange, or the artist formerly know as your "mother", standing in front of you. Suddenly you were far less scared, the familiarity of the situation easing your mind as you dropped your shoulders.

"Sweetheart." She said, taking a step toward you, her bedraggled clothes flowing gently in the thick air.

You stepped backwards, moving away. She halted, seeming offends by your not wanting to hug the woman who stole you from your real parents. You put your hand in your hip, feeling the shape of your wand underneath you jumper as you braced yourself.

"Come," she breathed out, tilting her head. "Say hello to your mother." She stepped forward again, and you backed away, keeping the same distance between you two.

"You're not my mother." You didn't mean to say anything, but you spat out the words like bitter apple, punched out by the bubbling concoction of anger and fright that brewed in your stomach.

The smile dropped of her face, dropping into a snarl as she punched back her shoulders, standing tall. "Don't be rude to your mother."

"You are not my mother." You repeated, doing your best to grind it into her skull that you didn't want her here.

"What do you mean, darling?" Her tone was sweet, but laced with cyanide as the word dripped over her lips, coating them in sickly sweet poison.

"I know." Was the best response you could come up with in that moment, courage slowly fighting off the panic as you kept your hand on your wand.

"Know-"

"Everything." You interrupted. "You took me."

You saw the realisation take over her eyes as she straightened her posture, doing her best to regain some sort of composure. "Nonsense." She laughed; the laugh was forced, hiding the grimace hat sat behind it.

"Don't deny it." You raised your voice slightly, doing your best to seem unafraid, which was slowly becoming true.

"Well, fine, you don't have to greet me, just listen." She ignored you, turning to the right and looking back at you. "I wan-"

"Why should I listen to you?"

She cleared her throat dramatically, before continuing to speak. "You're a clever kid, bright too."

_Thats the same thing._

"And your a great asset to this... school."

 _Thanks_.

"But why? What's the point in staying here?"

You followed her eyes as they shot around you, clinging onto your features for a few seconds before clicking away.

"You're noting here! You shrink away into the background, like a nobody; you're disposable!"

_Again, thanks._

She pause for a second, turning to face you and stepping to you, holding her hand in the space where her heart would be.

"You could be great."

"What are saying?" You asked, suspicions of what she was about to say.

"Be something great."

"What do you mean?"

"Join me- us. Join us"

"Join you-"

"YES." She shouted, interrupting you. "You could be so much, you could do so much!"

You paused, things about hbu what she was saying. "Who is 'us'?"

Bellatrix lunged foreard, grabbing your forearm and holding onto it with a vice-like grip. You tried to pull away, but she wouldn't let go, so you stayed awkwardly pulling your arm away as she held onto it.

" "Us" is the people who can help you become something great!" Still keeping one hand wrapped around your wrist she held out the other, pulling back her sleeve to show a dark tattoo sprawled across her inner forearm.

The dark mark.

She held it out next to your arm, turning it round and comparing them. "Join us, and you will be magnificent."

You looked down at the design in front of you as you watched the ink move below her skin, the snake slithering through the eye of the skull.

You yanked your arm away, pulling out your wand and brandishing it at the woman stood in front of you. "NO. LEAVE ME ALONE." You said, your voice strong and commanding as you did your best to cover up your real emotions.

Suddenly the air of playful derangement that hung around LeStrange vanished. She tilted her head to the right, slowly reaching into the waistband of her dress. She pulled out a wand, who's wood was warped and scratched; it looked just as unnatural as her.

"I dare ya!" She laughed, a high pitched tapping filling your ears, but the laugh wasn't friendly, wasn't born form happiness but hate; she was laughing at you, at your attempt to care her.

You stood your ground for a second, looking back at her as she pointed her wand at you.

Your senses came back you you, and you realised who she was, and what was about to happen. There was no way that you could win this.

So you ran.

You whipped around, digging your heels into the dirt and leaping forward, dodging through the trees as the aggressive crunch of twigs snapping under your heels jumped off the trees. From behind you, you heard a strangled laugh, and then nothing: no footsteps, no talking, nothing.   
You glanced to your right, trying to look back and see if you were being followed, but you caught a glimpse of something against the grey background of the trees fading into the distance, something black and billowing.

It was a ball of smoke, throwing out curling trails of coal black mist, infested with dust that billowed behind you as you ran. It sounded like a screeching thud, and was effortlessly keeping up with you.

You turned back to where you were running, ignoring it and watching your feet as they hit the forest floor.

You didn't let your attention stray from the sound of your footsteps until you were out of the forest. You looked up at the grey blue sky, leaning on your knees as you caught your breath.

Your breathing was shaky and, a deep rumbling feeling of dread began to drip into your bloodstream, making you feel like you'd just been through a meat grinder.

You gulped, brushing down your uniform and walking back to the castle. You knew that as soon as the fight or flight wore off you feel even shittier than you already did, but that was a problem for future you.

You were doing your best to remain inconspicuously ordinary as you walked down the hallway, but apparently your best wasn't too great, because the students that lined the corridors watched as you walked, occasionally turning to whisper about you to their friends. Ignoring them, you sped up, walking as fast as you could without running, feeling the dulled sting of tears begin to prick your eyes.

You were headed to your common room when you felt a tear run down your cheek. looking around to see if anyone was looking at you, you caught sight of a bathroom, deciding to take sanctuary in there until you could fully gather yourself together.

Luckily for you it was empty, and to decide there wasn't much point in locking goals in one of the stools, so you walked over to the sink, looking at your reflection. As soon as toy made eye contact with yourself you burst out in tears, sinking to the floor as you cracked your head in your hands, running your fingers through your hair as you cried.

The wave of fear that rushed over to was almost unbearable, tour whole body shaking as you shut your eyes as tightly as possible, trying to find some kind of solace in the darkness. The only thing you could hear was your shaky quivering breaths, covering up whimpers as tears dropped onto the floor, leaving dots of sadness on the bathroom floor.

You focused your mind on the sound of your breathing, doing your best to regulate it, letting the beat calm you.

Suddenly, the sound of the bathroom door being flung open slapped you in the face, jolting your entire body as you glanced up to see who was coming in.


	19. 19

"Mudblood?" Draco said, freezing in the doorway as he caught sight of your bedraggled frame slumped in the floor.

You could tell he didn't know what to do by the bewildered expression on his face. It was cute, in a way.

You wiped the tears off your cheeks and looked up at him, doing your best to regain the small shred of composure that was still hanging on. "What now, Malfoy?" You really weren't in the mood to be tormented by some stuck up prick, lest you forget yourself and deck him.

"What- what happened?" Draco took a single step forward, tentatively testing the water as he let go of the door.

You wanted to tell him, to vent to someone about what just happened, but this wasn't just someone; this was Malfoy, your sworn enemy from the day something... might've happened between the two of you? You couldn't really remember right now.

"I-" you started, intending to tell him to go away, but in that moment you saw something change on his face, a spark of something in his eye. Compassion, maybe?   
You burst into tears again, immediately hiding your face in your arms as you tried to dull the anxiety tearing a hole in your stomach.

You heard hurried footsteps, then felt something on your back. You looked up: Draco was kneeling beside you, his hand placed on your back as he looked back at you, his face a mixture of awkward comfort and compassion. You met his eyes, and for a second you both froze, encapsulated in the spinning aura of your proximity to each other, a strand of Dracos platinum hair falling from its place, in front of his eyes.

Draco broke the static, putting his arms round you and pulling you into a hug. At first it was awkward, but you let yourself melt into it, burying your face into his shoulder and hugging him back. The familiar scent of peppermint hung around him, and began to calm you somewhat. You felt Draco tilt his head to the side, resting it atop yours.

You stayed like this for a while, eyes squeezed shut as you blocked out everything except him, acknowledging only the scent of his peppermint aftershave, and the warmth of his skin seeping past your clothes, and the sound of his shallow breaths.

It was weird, but it felt right: the spinning fear began to dull, and your heart had stopped racing. You were still shaken, but suddenly considerably less so.

You realised that the dark cloud that blocked out your thoughts had since dissipated, and you'd been left with a warm wash of comfort.

"Are you ok?" You heard Dracos voice, straining to maintain a volume above a whisper.

It sounded so strangely genuine that you were caught off guard, not sure what to say as you took in this whole new side of him.

"Ye- uh, yeah. I'm good." Was what you managed to stutter out, realising the reality of the situation.

You cleared your throat, letting Malfoy go as he did the same, brushing yourself down and slowly standing up. You turned around, checking yourself in the mirror; your cheeks were flushed a deep crimson and the streaks of tears running down your face made you look sweaty—it was interesting. 

You wiped your face with your sleeve, sniffing and noticing Dracos reflection behind you.

"What happened?" He asked, looking at you in the mirror.

You sighed, turning around and leaning your back in the sink.

"I..." You started, looking at the floor. "I don't know if you know this, and I'm not sure if I want to tell you." You said, your voice fading out like a violin string being slashed.

Draco paused, looking you in the eye as you looked up to return his gaze. "It's alright." He said, his voice soft and strained, as if he wasn't used to speaking so daintily. 

You decided to tell him, and so you did.

You told him about your "mother", about what Dumbledore had told you, about how it made you feel, about how you'd been ignoring it, and then finally about what had just happened. 

Draco looked at you, taking in the information, his face still as he processed it.

"Ok." He said after a while, frowning a little in determination.

"Ok?" 

"Ok." He repeated, before swiftly turning round and marching towards the door, swinging it open and pausing. "Coming?" He asked as he held it for you.

You jumped forward, following him through the halls to you weren't sure where. You didn't even know why you were following him, oe why you should even trust him, but you did, and he was the only person you could follow. You and Draco marched into the Slytherin common room, and you watched him whip his head round frantically till he caught sight of the two boneheads sat by a bookshelf.

"Crabbe! Goyle!" He barked, and the immediately scuttled over to him. "I-" He started to say to them, before pausing and turning to you. "Could you go and get me a book please?" You'd never seen him ask for something so politely.

"Ok... what book?" 

"Just a book." he said, turning back to the lumps in front of him and standing in silence. 

You nodded, making your way out of the common room, hearing the hum of Dracos voice whispering amongst their group. That was definitely just to get you out of there, but why? What was so secret that you couldn't know about it? Usually, you would've interrogated Draco until he told you his whole life story, but you were to exhausted, and the walk to the library was actually quite nice. 

You obliged in staying gone, strolling slowly down the corridor until a nagging anxiety started pulling at your hair. You remembered the orb, and then everything else, and felt sick. No, you couldn't think like this, its irrational and illogical. You shook the thought from your head and continued, admiring the small chips and cracks in the stone walls as they passed you, noticing every little detail of the castle you'd never bothered to notice before. It was strangely interesting, for a boring old castle.

You reached the library; now any logical person would just grab the nearest book to them, as it didn't matter what it was about, but you knew that Draco had something to talk about in private, and besides, you weren't just anyone.

Heading down the rows of books you studied the category headings labelled on each bookshelf: History, Herbology, Practitions, Realms--half of them you'd never heard of before, but you stopped, as usual, at the section labelled 'Mushrooms'. You always looked through the books, studying the sketches and diagrams, they were just cool.

You grabbed a book off the shelf, something about poisonous mushrooms, and tucked it under your arm, heading back to the common room. 

By the time you got there Draco and his entourage had vanished, leaving you standing in the middle of the room. You were about to ask someone where theyd gone when you heard a familiar scoffing coming from behind you.

"Malfoy, your book." You handed over the book.

He looked at the cover, judging it so obviously it was painful. "Mushrooms, how... adequate." 

You suppressed a giggle, covering it with a cough. "So, what was that about?"

"Oh, that," He said, glancing back. "Just, um, sorting something out, ill tell you later."

"Ok." You said suspiciously, not sure if your trust was well placed.

"Hey," Draco interrupted your thoughts rather suddenly. "lets go somewhere!" He was so upbeat it was weird.

You were immediately thrown off your rhythm, and your street smarts told you that your blond friend was up to something. "What are you talking about?"

"Lets do something!" He repeated, just as strangely positively.

You didn't say anything, just looked back at him with a sullied expression on your face, crossing your arms and tilting your head

Draco dropped the facade, stepping closer to you. "You just need a distraction right now." He said, sternly yet with a static edge of care.

You didn't say anything, just nodded, walking towards the exit. "Well are we going or not?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay question-- I were to write another fanfic about someone else, or Draco again idk, who would u want me to write about? Im stumped for ideas atm and I thought why not get some suggestions -- like characters, ships, possible AUs -- just tell me bc I wanna write something else (as well a this) but idk what.
> 
> cheers broskis


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